DONALD R. WASSENBERG II
MEMORIAL LECTURE ON GENETIC DISEASE RESEARCH
About The Lecture Series
This lecture is dedicated to the memory of Donald “Buzz” Wassenberg, a Master’s degree candidate at San Diego State University at the time of his death in 1986. He died of cystic fibrosis at the age of 26. Buzz was an outstanding individual, both personally and professionally. He displayed an enthusiasm about life that was not dampened by the severe medical problems he faced. His approach to science was innovative and he generated an excitement regarding new experimental ideas and results.
Buzz had completed his laboratory research in Dr. Sandy Bernstein’s laboratory and had begun writing his thesis prior to his death. SDSU awarded his Master’s degree posthumously at the spring, 1987 graduation, where Dr. Bernstein presented the completed thesis and the degree to Buzz’s parents. This research was subsequently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. To honor his memory and to provide inspiration to his peers and colleagues, we have begun an endowment fund. This allows us to bring top investigators to SDSU to present recent advances in genetic disease research.
About The Speaker
Dr. Bautista is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Professor and Head of the Division of Cell Biology, Developmental Biology and Physiology, in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology & Biochemistry from the University of Oregon, working with Dr. Peter O’Day studying visual transduction in the fly. She pursed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Stanford University, working with Dr. Richard S. Lewis on understanding calcium dynamics in human T lymphocytes. Her postdoctoral research with Dr. David Julius in the Department of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco focused on defining the physiological roles of sensory ion channels TRPA1 and TRPM8 in thermosensation and pain. She joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 2008. Dr. Bautista’s lab studies the neuroimmune interactions underlying chronic pain, itch and airway inflammation. Her research has been funded by the NIH since 2009 and she is a recipient of a Pew Scholar Award, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, an NIH Director's Transformative Research Award, and UC awards for Graduate Mentoring for her work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in STEM.