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Abstract or Project Description

Abstract or Project Description

All Voting is committed to fighting for the freedom to vote and advancing pro-voter policies at the state and local level, ensuring that all Americans, particularly Black, Brown, Native American and other historically excluded communities have their voices heard.

Abstract or Project Description

Funding supported the Accelerating Literacy Leadership (ALL) grant, which supports Oakland schools in dramatically improving K–2 students’ reading outcomes by improving conditions for educators, students and families.

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“The Power of Our Differences” is a new 40-minute multi-generational contemporary dance work commissioned by AXIS, choreographed by Artistic Director Nadia Adame with composer Paul Shapera, dramaturg Mark Swetz and the AXIS ensemble. Drawing from Adame’s lived experience as a disabled artist, the piece moves from solo introspection into collective motion, centering disability as a generative aesthetic force that expands contemporary dance vocabulary through asymmetry, adaptation and interdependence.

Abstract or Project Description

We currently lack cures for chronic intestinal diseases. Despite incredible advances in understanding and targeting inflammation that promotes diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, many patients develop resistance to treatment, suggesting alternative disease drivers beyond immune cells and the inflammatory molecules they produce. While the gut has remarkable regenerative capacity due to specialized stem cells that can rapidly generate all mature epithelial cells, diseases may impact underlying structural cells called fibroblasts which typically guide epithelial cell regeneration.

Our research vision is to identify the root causes of inflammatory diseases in the human gut. Our work suggests that fibroblasts play a central role, and our experiments to date have developed a unique and simple way to test how fibroblasts work closely with inflammatory immune cells. The specific internal cellular wiring diagrams and external cellular communication systems responsible for the identity and variety of fibroblasts that exist in the gut remains elusive. Our project aims to realize an integrative research plan that bridges careful human observation, computation and mechanistic experimental models. Our group is fundamentally interested in determining whether and how fibroblasts store and propagate disease in intestinal tissues to develop cures for IBD.

Abstract or Project Description

The composition and activity of the gut microbiota is a key modulator of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). Importantly, the bacteria that reside within the gut are organized within distinct biogeographical niches, and niche occupancy can be a major contributor to IBD. Unfortunately, the biogeography of the gut microbiota, its modulation during intestinal inflammation and the specific gene expression programs that license niche occupancy remain largely unclear. The sheer complexity of this system poses a major challenge to addressing these questions: hundreds of bacterial species collectively express hundreds of thousands of genes, which, in turn, shape interactions with many gut cell types. Genome-scale sequencing methods have been the historic solution to this complexity, yet these methods naturally discard the spatial organization of this system and, thus, have provided limited insight into microbial biogeography. Here we address this limitation with new “genome-scale microscopy” methods. Our methods allow us to image and identify thousands of different RNA molecules within intact gut samples, and we will leverage our tools to map the microbial biogeography, gene expression and host response in a murine IBD model with three defined microbiota. Collectively, these measurements promise new insights into the role of microbial biogeography in gut inflammation. 

Abstract or Project Description

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are a devastating group of heterogenous inflammatory diseases that share the fact that the host immune system attacks the intestinal tissue disrupting gut functionality. All therapies currently available, such as biologics, target immune mediators that support damage and inflammation. Although these therapies ameliorated the life of many IBD patients, they not always work or stop to work overtime, highlighting the urgent need to develop new therapeutic approaches. Here, we propose to complement therapeutic interventions aimed at decreasing immune attack and intestinal damage by identifying new strategies that can be utilized to favor gut repair. In particular, we identified a new transcriptional program in intestinal epithelial cells that can be harnessed to facilitate intestinal healing. In our application we propose multiple studies based on: i) mouse models of colitis to test new therapeutic approaches; ii) human and mouse organoids to mimic intestinal epithelial cell damage and repair; and iii) use of biopsies from IBD patients and analysis of large human datasets to translate our findings to IBD patients. Our studies will reveal new therapeutic targets and strategies aimed at fostering tissue repair. These new interventions can be utilized in conjunction with current anti-inflammatory therapies to facilitate gut healing, thus ameliorating the quality of life of IBD patients.

Abstract or Project Description

Both diet and the gut microbiome, the trillions of microorganisms that live in our intestines, have been strongly linked to IBD. However, it remains unclear how food, the microbiome and intestinal inflammation are connected. This project will identify dietary compounds that reduce intestinal inflammation, determine how gut bacteria convert these compounds into beneficial molecules and test whether beneficial bacteria can be used to generate these molecules in the gut. Ultimately, this work could lead to personalized dietary and microbiome-based therapies for IBD, in which foods and beneficial microbes are matched to an individual’s ability to generate protective molecules in the gut.

Abstract or Project Description

“GATHERING OF FLOWERS: Stories of Solidarity Across Latinx & AAPI Diaspora” is a new play by Kat Evasco and Liliana Herrera, created with Latinx and AAPI community members driven by a clear artistic vision: to create a polyvocal theatrical work that refuses the single protagonist’s arc and instead holds multiple voices, languages and truths on stage while inviting audiences not only to witness these communities, but to see the deep connections between them.

Abstract or Project Description

“Going Out of Business” is a three-part series of site-specific, immersive Drag installations by lead artists Mama Celeste and KaiKai Bee Michaels. It invokes the historical legacy of queer community organizing during times of economic turmoil and political upheaval.

Abstract or Project Description

Glucocorticoids are the mainstay treatment to quell acute flare events in the context of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. These steroids are taken systemically and have broad and long-lasting side effects. As a result, alternative, safer approaches are sought. We have recently discovered that proteins made by the gut microbiota found predominantly in healthy individuals trigger the same receptors. This suggests that these proteins may have therapeutic benefit. The proposed research aims to further our understanding of these interactions. We aim to test whether these proteins, when amended to the gut microbiome of mice with colitis, are sufficient to reduce inflammation. Our ultimate goal is to develop therapeutics for patients with IBD that perform the role of glucocorticoids and act locally on inflamed tissue in the gut.

Abstract or Project Description

“What We Carry” is a multidisciplinary, immersive performance exploring the intersecting experiences of US veterans and refugees impacted by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, developed through a long-term community-driven process. It premieres in spring 2027.

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“AFTERLANDS” is a site-responsive, three-act theatrical experiment that reimagines the “Great American Play” through a queer, collaborative and process-driven lens.

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“Land and Us–Future Ritual” is a full-length dance and performance art piece exploring land-human connections in Asian mythologies and the complex hope of seeking refuge in a new place.

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“Blue Gold” is an interdisciplinary dance and music work by Duniya Dance and Drum Company and co-choreographers Joti Singh and Kara Mack, exploring indigo’s global histories—connecting colonization, slavery, resistance and climate justice.

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This project’s goal is to suport civic engagement, inclusive democracy and economic justice in underprivileged and underserved communities.

Abstract or Project Description

Funding supported the Accelerating Literacy Leadership (ALL) grant, which supports Oakland schools in dramatically improving K–2 students’ reading outcomes by improving conditions for educators, students and families.

Abstract or Project Description

Funding supported the new Early Literacy Director search.