News



September 17, 2023

Behind the science: meet the faces of the lab!
Media
August 27, 2023
Precision Microbiome Editing To Tackle Methane Emissions, by Molly Campbell | Technology Networks
Ben chats about ET-Seq and DART in this article on the work behind CRISPR and precision microbiome editing, the exciting TED Audacious Project, and how we can harness microbiome editing to tackle climate change.
The Lab
August 15, 2023
We are honored to announce funding by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to UC Berkeley. The generous grant will propel our work on microbiome editing tools, aiding in the understanding of Crohn's disease, with the ultimate goal of creating innovative treatments for this chronic condition.
This project will be co-led by the Cress Lab at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley and is in collaboration with the Devkota Lab at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust logo.
Social
August 9, 2023
The Rubin Lab celebrated the first anniversary of our lab with lunch (missing Amanda and Zoë)! It was an amazing time chatting about the past year of science and community-building, and all the exciting changes ahead!

Leo, Abby, Ben, Jigyasa, and Sophia (from left to right).
The Lab
June 29, 2023
Leo and Sophia present on CAST regulators at the CRISPR2023 Conference in Würzburg, Germany!




Photos of Leo and Sophia's poster and CRISPR2023 conference!
The Lab
June 5, 2023
Ben attends the Sequencing to Function: Analysis and Application for the Future (SFA²F) conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.



Photos from the SFA²F conference!
The Lab
May 15, 2023
Welcome to Jigyasa Arora who is joining the Rubin Lab as a staff scientist! She will be spearheading the bioinformatics side of the lab and working on optimizing tools to investigate the regulation of CRISPR-associated transposon and more.
A picture of Jigyasa.
The Lab
May 8, 2023
A warm welcome to our new graduate student Sophia Swartz! She will be working on investigating the regulation and integration mechanism of CRISPR-associated transposons to develop and optimize editing tools for non-model microbes. Sophia is co-advised by Jennifer Doudna and Brady Cress.
A picture of Sophia.
The Lab
May 2, 2023
Huge congratulations to our undergraduate researcher Sara Smith who will be attending UCSF’s Biological and Medical Informatics program later this fall! We are tremendously excited and can’t wait to see all the great things she will accomplish in graduate school in the coming years!
Sara's graduation picture!
The Lab
April 21, 2023
Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Abby Wang for receiving a UC Berkeley 2023 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)! The fellowship will support Abby’s research over the summer as she works on projects related to VcDART with the lab.
A picture of Abby.
Media
April 17, 2023
What is precision microbiome editing? Learn more about microbiomes, why microbiomes matter, and how the lab is tackling creating tools to edit the genes of microbes within their complex, natural environment.
Media
April 17, 2023
The Rubin Lab is excited to be part of the initiative headed by Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield to use CRISPR genome editing to engineer the microbiome in order to address global problems in climate and human health. This initiative is generously supported by $70 million in funding through the Audacious Project.
The Lab
February 1, 2023
Big smiles from the lab's first solo lab meeting!

Abby, Sara, Ben, Leo, Amanda, and Sophia (from left to right)!
Social
January 10, 2023
The lab welcomes Amanda with members of the Cress Lab!

Leo, Sophia, Kate, Amanda, Ben, and Brady (from left to right).
The Lab
January 9, 2023
Amanda Alker joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher. She will be developing microbial community editing techniques and applying them to new systems (such as plant-root microbiomes!).
A picture of Amanda.
Social
December 14, 2022
The Rubin Lab holds its first annual holiday dinner with friends from the Cress Lab! (Also, check out our Twitter launch!)

Great food and good company!
Media
October 4, 2022
A $2.5 million gift from the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation supports BiomeForge's research efforts on developing microbiome editing technology.
The Lab
September 26, 2022
The Rubin Lab takes its first group photo featuring all the members of the lab!

Abby, Sara, Ben and Leo (from left to right)!
The Lab
August 23, 2022
Abby Wang joins the Rubin Lab as an undergraduate graphic designer and researcher, designing this website and working on other graphical tasks!

A picture of Abby.
The Lab
August 2, 2022
The Rubin Lab sets up its first lab space at the Innovative Genomics Institute Building!




The Rubin Lab space at the IGIB!
The Lab
August 1, 2022
The Rubin Lab starts at UC Berkeley, focusing on the applications of microbiome editing. Its first members are Ben Rubin, Leo Song, and Sara Smith!

Leo, Ben, and Sara (from left to right)!
Media
July 26, 2022
A fantastic article featuring Ben and colleagues discussing the experimental process and how they employ CRISPR to edit gut microbiomes.
Media
May 17, 2022
A toolkit for microbial community editing, by Susannah G. Tringe | Nature Reviews Microbiology
An article detailing how microbial community editing works and its current status in research.
Media
February 18, 2022
A conversation with Ben, Brady Cress, and Spencer Diamond on how microbiomes can be edited, the strategies, and its applications for future research.
Media
December 13, 2021
Genome editing in complex microbial communities, by Immy Mobley | Front Line Genomics
Front Line Genomics covers the new findings and strategies characterized by Ben and colleagues to edit genomes of microorganisms in microbial communities as published in Nature Microbiology.
Media
December 8, 2021
CRISPR editing within microbial communities, by Linda Koch | Nature Reviews Genetics
A research highlight detailing how the editing approaches ET-seq (environmental transformation sequencing) and DART (DNA-editing all-in-one RNA-guided CRISPR–Cas transposase) were developed and are currently being applied to edit microbiomes.
Media
December 6, 2021
DART takes aim at community editing, by Connie W. Y. Ha & Suzanne Devkota | Nature Microbiology
DART (DNA-editing all-in-one RNA-guided CRISPR–Cas transposase), one of the methods used to conduct community editing, is explained.
Media
December 6, 2021
An article from the Innovative Genomics Institute discussing the exciting applications of CRISPR to modify microbiomes. The article goes into depth on Ben, Brady Cress, and Spencer Diamond's work.
Publication Alert
December 6, 2021