Taking a page from computer engineers, biologists are trying their hands at programming cells – by building DNA circuits to guide their protein-making machinery and behavior.

Scientists at UCSF have shown that gene-edited cellular therapeutics can be used to successfully treat cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases in mice.

Researchers at UC San Francisco have successfully developed a “speech neuroprosthesis” that has enabled a man with severe paralysis to communicate in sentences, translating signals from his brain to the vocal tract directly into words that appear as text on a screen.

Plenty of probiotic yogurts, pickles and kombuchas claim to boost our digestive health with armies of microbes, but some scientists have more ambitious therapeutic plans for the “bugs” that colonize us. They hope to leverage these microbes as living therapeutics for a range of health conditions, including ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, eczema and asthma. 

Pioneer, giant, visionary – these are just a few of the words that describe John Severinghaus and his work to advance anesthesia and medicine.