S. Merchant Lab

Say hello to the Merchant Lab @UCBerkeley! We study trace metals metabolism in #algae. Follow us to get the latest updates on our #research! #biology #chemistry #biochemistry #plantbiology #Genomics

Our latest systems biology study out now @PNASNews! See how acclimation to dim days impacts fitness in bright days and mine data collected from synchronized cultures to uncover how algae repair severe photodamage & acclimate anew in just 48 h 🌱🌞 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2…

Chlamy never ceases to surprise me! Our new preprint tracks dim-day acclimated Chlamy populations as they face sudden bright days. See how the alga bounces back from severe photodamage and a weird empty stroma phenotype to divide successfully by nightfall. doi.org/10.1101/2025.0…

We promote Auxenochlorella as the green yeast for studying chloroplasts and photosynthesis! sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Our large-scale biology article is out in @ThePlantCell! Dig into these rich datasets to see how light-induced stress not only impacts what algae do during the day, but also how it shapes their physiology and gene expression at night. doi.org/10.1093/plcell…

Congratulations to our grad student Dimitrios Camacho for receiving his PhD! We’re so proud of you!

Congratulations to our grad student Sunnyjoy Dupuis for receiving her PhD! We’re so proud of you!

Huge congratulations to our lab intern Kenzo Khoo on completing his Master’s in Bioprocess Engineering at UC Berkeley and starting a new role at Genentech! Thank you for your valuable contributions to algae culture scale-up and metabolic analysis at LBNL. We're proud of you!

Sabeeha wrote about the history of her research in this article, take a look! kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2…

Graduate Student Marco Dueñas recently did an interview with @QB3Berkeley on our recent polycistronic paper out in @PNASNews. Come read below! qb3.berkeley.edu/news/focus-on-…

This month's interview is with Marco Dueñas, a PhD candidate in Sabeeha Merchant’s lab! He chats with us about his recent paper in @PNASNews, overcoming research challenges, and more. Read the story: bit.ly/m-duenas

The Merchant lab's latest work on polycistronic expression in green algae is published in PNAS! Come find out how we uncovered the mechanism driving multiple ORF translation and its potential for synthetic biology! Congrats to @MarcoADuenas8 and team! pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

The Merchant lab has just released a preprint detailing the Auxenochlorella genome! This alga has precise gene targeting useful for both basic biology and engineering applications. Be on the look out for more publications soon from the Auxeno team soon! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

We are thrilled to welcome Liam Sheedy as our newest Ph.D. student in our lab! 🧪

Marco presented his work on the polycistronic project at the UCSF Bay Area RNA club and was selected as one of the best talks! Keep an eye out for more polycistronic updates to come!

Celebrating the holidays and November birthdays with the Merchant lab—wishing everyone a joyous holiday with warmth and cheer!🎄🎊 Thanks to Flores Emeryville for hosting us!

Congratulations to grad student Marco Dueñas on receiving an F31 NIH fellowship for his work on the polycistronic project! His research aims to uncover the elusive functions of these enigmatic genes and advance the use of the green algae Auxenochlorella for synthetic biology!

I am excited to share our discovery on how the Fe-rich eukaryotic Photosystem I (PSI) has an additional LHCI tetramer in Fe starvation from two green algae species isolated from drastically different environmental niches. biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh…

Brilliant talks in Stockholm! Featuring David Baker, 2024 nobel prize winner and former student of the Schekman lab.