Steven Lindow

A team of UC Berkeley researchers made the first comprehensive collection of fungi on the Polynesian island of Mo’orea in a study published Mar. 30. 

While scientists have known about the existence of microbes since the 1600s, for years bacteria and archaea, two branches of the tree of life, remained vastly unexplored due to limited methods of cultivation.

For more than 30 years, UC Berkeley has been at the forefront of GMO research and development. Many faculty members have been divided between work to bring genetically modified products to the marketplace and attempts to challenge their dispersal in the environment.