Gladstone Institutes

10/08/2026

Seth Shipman, an investigator at Gladstone Institutes, has been elected a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. Shipman joins a governing body of more than 400 distinguished scientists, researchers, and leaders recognized for their exceptional contributions to scientific research, education, and public engagement.

Visit our website to read more about this award. Link in comments.

10/07/2026

🏆 Two Gladstone postdocs brought home top honors at this year's UCSF Postdoc Slam!

Yolanda Martí-Mateos, from the Jain Lab, took home 1st place for "A Bloody Secret to Lower Sugar." Her research reveals why people living at high altitudes process sugar more efficiently, and it all comes down to an overlooked hero: the red blood cell. The discovery could point to a new approach for treating diabetes, which affects more than 800 million people worldwide.

Shoshana Williams, from the Ott Lab, won the People's Choice Award for "No Lab, No Power, No Problem," presenting a CRISPR-powered paper test strip that could deliver TB results in under an hour—bringing faster, lifesaving diagnostics to rural clinics.

Huge congratulations to both!

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10/06/2026

Gladstone's Jeanne Paz reflects on her early-career years in the lab of 2026 Nobel Prize winner Karl Deisseroth and explains how optogenetics has advanced epilepsy research.

The technique enables neuroscientists to target brain circuits with unprecedented specificity, transforming the study of memory, reward and more.

10/05/2026

Inspired by bacterial biology, the Gladstone-developed “Detectron” opens up new possibilities for disease research and potentially treatments.

10/05/2026

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month—and we're spotlighting research that could change outcomes for families.

Nearly half of all babies born with Down syndrome face congenital heart defects serious enough to need surgery in their first months of life.

In this video, Deepak Srivastava, Katie Pollard, and Sanjeev Ranade explain how our team used stem cells, gene editing, and AI to pinpoint the gene driving these heart defects — and how dialing down its activity in mice restored normal heart development.

It's early-stage work, but it points toward future treatments that could help prevent these malformations before they start.

In this video, Gladstone scientists share how they used stem cells, gene editing, and AI to identify a gene driving heart defects in Down syndrome—and how reducing its levels in mice restored normal heart development, offering hope for future treatments

10/04/2026

Gilbert Herrera, a second-year graduate student studying cancer immunology at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, has been named the inaugural Ellen & Bernard Marson Fellow.

Created through the generosity of Rosemary and Kevin McNeely, the fellowship provides three years of support for a promising trainee pursuing innovative immunotherapy research.

Herrera is co-mentored by Matt Spitzer, PhD, an investigator at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology who also serves as a professor at UC San Francisco and an investigator at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; and Simone Minnie, PhD, a UCSF assistant professor whose lab is focused on tumor immunology.

Read more about this award on our website. Link in comments.

10/04/2026

Gladstone is among the early users of Anthropic’s Claude Science platform, which is being used to support new approaches to biological research.

Anthropic has opened a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area for physical biology experiments, confirmed by its head of life sciences. The facility supports Claude AI's push into protein design and automation while the company stresses human oversight and avoids clinical trials. Real-world validatio...

10/02/2026

Gladstone Associate Investigator Seth Shipman shares his thoughts on Anthropic's claim that its scientists used AI to discover new enzymes with promise for biotechnology.

An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.

10/01/2026

Our Gladstone community came out in force for the San Francisco Heart Walk! We had 91 walkers across 11 teams, and raised $1,766.40 for cardiovascular research.

So much gratitude for everyone who walked, donated, and cheered us on. ❤️

10/01/2026

Oxygen fuels how our cells make energy, kind of like air feeds a fire. Ayush Midha and his team in the Jain Lab noticed that cancer mortality is lower in high-altitude U.S. counties, so his team tested what happens to tumors in low-oxygen conditions. The result: tumors grew slower. Turns out, building the new DNA and RNA needed to grow takes a lot of energy—and in low oxygen, tumors just can't keep up.