Beth Burnside

Professor Beth Burnside is Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. As Vice Chancellor for Research she is responsible for university/industry relations, research compliance, research communications and research support for the Berkeley campus. Professor Burnside's research interest is the cell biology of retinal photoreceptors. Her laboratory studies the roles of cyto-skeletal motors in motile processes critical to photoreceptor development and survival. Currently her lab is investigating the function of myosin 3A, a unique kinase-bearing myosin selectively expressed in photoreceptors. Since mutations of myosin 3 are known to cause retinal degeneration in fruitflies, her lab is trying to ascertain whether defects in this gene lead to retinal degeneration in humans and to understands what role myosin 3 plays in vertebrate photoreceptors.

Work Experience

• Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, 2001-present
• Dean of Biological Sciences, UC Berkeley, 1983-1990
• Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, UC Berkeley, 1977-present
• Assistant Professor of Anatomy, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1973-1977

Education

• BA, MA, and PhD in Biology, University of Texas, Austin
• Postdoctoral appointments at Hubrecht Laboratories in Utrecht, The Netherlands, at Harvard University, and at Harvard Medical School

Awards, Honors and Significant Achievements

• Chancellor's Professor, UC Berkeley
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Member, Scientific Advisory Board and the National Advisory Eye Council of the National Eye Institute of the NIH
• Two Distinguished Teaching Awards, UC Berkeley
• Merit Award from the National Eye Institute
• Outstanding Alumnus Award, Graduate School of the University of Texas, Austin

Professor Burnside's web page at UC Berkeley

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