When Vice President Joe Biden dropped by UC San Francisco on Saturday for a wide-ranging discussion of the current state of cancer research, UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna was on hand to emphasize the need to fund basic research as well as clinical research. Using the gene-editing tool she discovered, CRISPR-Cas9, as an example, Doudna plugged the important role of basic biological research in any effort to understand the drivers of cancer and discover possible new therapies for the disease. “I just would love to see the cancer moonshot continue to support fundamental research that leads to breakthroughs that are going to be critical to address this mission,” she told Biden. Biden referenced their earlier meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 19, where the vice president rolled out plans by the Obama administration to invest $1 billion in this national initiative to eliminate cancer. “You sold me on that at Davos,” he said. ...

Hot Topics at EECS Research Centers: Graduate student researchers from across the EECS research centers share their work with a rapid fire sequence of fun, 5 minute presentations. Presenter: Kevin Weekly, CREST (Center for Research in Energy Systems Transformation)