Gas diffusion electrodes are used in electrochemical applications to produce value added chemicals such as H2O2. Carbon paper and carbon cloth are used as substrates in gas diffusion cathodes. However, carbon-based substrates are not mechanically sturdy as they can develop cracks under flexion. They are also expensive ($150 for a 310-micron thick carbon paper of 40cm X 40cm). UC Berkeley researchers have created air-cathodes made with a non-reacting metal mesh as the supporting conducting substrate. The metal may be in the form of an alloy or coating, such as one metal on another, or a metal coating on a non-metal substrate.  The metal air cathodes avoid the use of carbon paper altogether, are more cost effective, flexible yet strong and durable, and provide robust gas-diffusion cathodes for sustained production of H2O2 over long-periods of operation.  

 The dynamic patterning of 3D optical point clouds has emerged as a key enabling technology in volumetric processing across a number of applications. In the context of biological microscopy, 3D point cloud patterning is employed for non-invasive all-optical interfacing with cell ensembles. In augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), near-eye display systems can incorporate virtual 3D point cloud-based objects into real-world scenes, and in the realm of material processing, point cloud patterning can be mobilized for 3D nanofabrication via multiphoton or ultraviolet lithography. Volumetric point cloud patterning with spatial light modulators (SLMs) is therefore widely employed across these and other fields. However, existing hologram computation methods, such as iterative, look-up table-based and deep learning approaches, remain exceedingly slow and/or burdensome. Many require hardware-intensive resources and sacrifices to volume quality.To address this problem, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new, non-iterative point cloud holography algorithm that employs fast deterministic calculations. Compared against existing iterative approaches, the algorithm’s relative speed advantage increases with SLM format, reaching >100,000´ for formats as low as 512x512, and optimally mobilizes time multiplexing to increase targeting throughput. 

An increase in threatening situations in school environments requires individuals to be ready to secure egress doors quickly to prevent intruders and other uninvited individuals from entering a space. Given the numerous variables that can affect where, when, how, or even if individuals can shelter-in-place during an emergency, there is a need for a simple, portable, lightweight, and cost-effective door security device that installs quickly and easily—without tools—on outward swinging doors from within the room being secured. The inventors have developed a device that can secure an outward swinging egress door from within a room, enabling occupants of a space to quickly barricade a room's entrance during a lockdown or other emergency requiring shelter-in-place protocols. In contrast to other known door security devices and systems for securing a hinged, outward swinging egress door, this improved door security device is portable, lightweight, easy-to-install without tools, and adaptable to doors with different handle, jamb, and casing combinations or measurements. This discrete, on-the-go security device for securing an outward swinging door is not dependent on any furnishings or security apparatus of a particular space. 

Certain difficult optimization problems, such as the traveling salesman problem, can be solved using so-called analog Ising machines, in which electronic components (such as certain arrangements of diodes or electronic switches) implement an analog of a well-studied physical system known as an Ising machine. The problem is recast so that its solution can be read off from the lowest-energy configuration of the analog Ising machine, a state which the system will naturally evolve towards. While promising, this methodology suffers major drawbacks. Firstly, the number of subunits, known as “spins”, in the analog Ising machines, as well as the number of connections between these subunits, can grow substantially with problem size. Secondly, existing implementations of this principle rely on chip constructions which are optimized for one or a few problems, and are not sufficiently reprogrammable to be repurposed efficiently for other applications. To address these problems, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a device known as a Field-programmable Ising machine which can be adapted to implement an analog Ising machine using a variety of hardware designs, such as the diodes and switches mentioned above. These Ising machines can be effectively reprogrammed to efficiently solve a wide array of problems across various domains. The inventors have shown that this design can be applied to SAT (“Satisfiability”) problems, a class known to be similar to the traveling salesman problem, in that the number of spins needed and their level of connectivity do not grow too quickly with problem size.

Metamaterials are constructed from regular patterns of simpler constituents known as unit cells. These engineered metamaterials can exhibit exotic mechanical properties not found in naturally occurring materials, and accordingly they have the potential for use in a variety of applications from running shoe soles to automobile crumple zones to airplane wings. Practical design using metamaterials requires the specification of the desired mechanical properties based on understanding the precise unit cell structure and repeating pattern. Traditional design approaches, however, are often unable to take advantage of the full range of possible stress-strain relationships, as they are hampered by significant nonlinear behavior, process-dependent manufacturing errors, and the interplay between multiple competing design objectives. To solve these problems, researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a machine learning algorithm in which designers input a desired stress-strain curve that encodes the mechanical properties of a material. Within seconds, the algorithm outputs the digital design of a metamaterial that, once printed, fully encapsulates the desired properties from the inputted stress-strain curve. This algorithm produces results with a fidelity to the desired curve in excess of 90%, and can reproduce a variety of complex phenomena completely inaccessible to existing methods.

The inventors have developed an engineering approach to identify novel and nonobvious membrane-associated accessory protein (MAAP) sequence variants that confer increased Adeno-associated virus (AAV) secretion during packaging. The technique is based upon the iterative process of sequence diversification and selection of functional gene variants known as directed evolution. First, the inventors generated a library of more than 1E6 MAAP variants. The variants were subjected to five rounds of packaging into an AAV2 capsid for which MAAP expression was inactivated without altering the viral protein VP1 open reading frame (ORF) (AAV2-MAAP-null). Among each iterative packaging round, the inventors observed a progressive increase in both the overall titer and ratio of secreted vector genomes conferred by the bulk selected MAAP library population. Next-generation sequencing uncovered common mutational features that were enriched up to over 10,000-fold on the amino acid level. Individual MAAP variants were isolated and systematically tested for effect on recombinant AAV2-MAAP-null packaging in HEK293 cells. The inventors predict that this work may be applicable to increasing per-cell AAV output in industrial settings, potentially reducing global costs and increasing functional vector recovery in downstream manufacturing processes.BACKGROUNDParvoviruses are small, single-stranded DNA viruses that are ubiquitously found in many animal species. AAV is a prototypic dependoparvovirus whose replication cycle requires the function of helper genes from larger co-infected viruses such as Adenoviruses or Herpesviruses. The natural genome of AAV contains ~4.7 kb of ssDNA that encodes up to ten known proteins in a highly overlapped fashion. The rep gene encodes four protein products named based on their molecular weight: Rep72 and Rep68 facilitate genomic replication, whereas Rep52, and Rep40 play essential roles in loading nascent ssDNA genomes into assembled capsids. Downstream of rep lies the cap gene, which encodes three known protein products off of overlapping reading frames: VP1, VP2, and VP3 are structural proteins that assemble to form the capsid, the assembly activating protein (AAP) targets VP proteins to the nucleus and is involved in capsid assembly. The most recently discovered AAV-encoded gene is the membrane-associated accessory protein (MAAP). MAAP is encoded by an alternative ORF in the AAV cap gene that is found in all presently reported natural serotypes. Gene delivery by recombinant AAV (rAAV) have shown significant success in both research and clinical gene therapy applications. In the rAAV system, Rep and Cap are removed from between AAV’s 5’ and 3’ inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) and provided in trans. Instead, a transgene of interest is inserted between the ITRs and subsequently packaged into the nascent AAV capsids. However, manufacturing quantities of good manufacturing practice (GMP)-grade rAAVs necessary to achieve current and projected dosing requirements–particularly in a clinical context–presents a significant hurdle to expanding rAAV-based gene therapies. Recently, evidence has emerged supporting a functional role of MAAP in AAV egress. This led to the hypothesis that MAAP could be engineered to facilitate increased levels of secreted AAV produced from HEK293 cells. 

The inventors have developed a method of mutagenizing user-defined regions of cytoplasmic DNA using a single guide RNA (sgRNA) or combinations of sgRNAs and a highly engineered fusion polypeptide comprising: a nuclear export sequence (NES)-containing, engineered nuclear localization sequence (NLS)-lacking, enzymatically active, RNA-guided endonuclease that introduces a single-stranded break in cytoplasmic DNA, and an error-prone DNA polymerase. This novel technology encompasses and provides evidence for the use of RNA-guided nucleases with relaxed PAM requirements, which are particularly useful for AT-rich targets such as the vaccinia virus genome. The inventors show that the truncation of up to several base pairs from the PAM-distal template binding region of the sgRNAs significantly increases the functional activity and specificity of the targeted mutagenesis complex. Moreover, the invention describes specific methods for the use of this technology to edit cytoplasmically replicating viruses with large DNA genomes, using poxviruses as a model system. The novel editing platform and methods selectively and continuously accelerate diversification of user-defined sites in the vaccinia genome during infection, while retaining most library members, due to significantly lowering deleterious off-target mutations. BACKGROUND Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) are a group of viruses that harbor large (150 kbp - 1.2 mbp) double-stranded DNA genomes and replicate in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells. An example of an NCLDV that has historically been among the most prominent tools in human health is vaccinia, a poxvirus. Hundreds of millions of humans have been intentionally inoculated with vaccinia as part of a global effort to eliminate smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980.Vaccinia and some other poxviruses remain highly scientifically relevant in the post-eradication world. They are useful as vaccines against deadly poxvirus outbreaks that could potentially arise from natural spillover, bioterrorism, or biowarfare, as well as due to their therapeutic promise as oncolytic agents to selectively deliver anti-cancer transgenes and recruit adaptive immunity while leaving healthy cells unharmed. Directed evolution is a powerful engineering technique for evolving new phenotypes that are beneficial for biotechnological applications but for which there may have never been a selective pressure to evolve in nature. Both natural and directed evolution depend upon generation of genetic diversity, followed by a selective pressure. While natural evolution generates genetic diversity randomly and throughout the entirety of the genome, directed evolution ideally focuses mutations within specific genomic windows connected to the phenotype that one wishes to engineer. However, there is a need in the art for compositions and methods for mutagenizing a target DNA in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. NCLDVs, which either partially or entirely express their own replicative and translational machinery independent of the nucleus, are difficult, and in many cases impossible, to produce from plasmid DNA in cells. Thus, NCLDVs are not amenable to standard in vitro molecular diversification strategies.  

The inventors have developed a scalable laser aperture that emits light perpendicular to the surface. The aperture can, in principal, scale to arbitrarily large sizes, offering a universal architecture for systems in need of small, intermediate, or high power. The technology is based on photonic crystal apertures, nanostructured apertures that exhibit a quasi-linear dispersion at the center of the Brillouin zone together with a mode-dependent loss controlled by the cavity boundaries, modes, and crystal truncation. Open Dirac cavities protect the fundamental mode and couple higher order modes to lossy bands of the photonic structure. The technology was developed with an open-Dirac electromagnetic aperture, known as a Berkeley Surface Emitting Laser (BKSEL).  The inventors demonstrate a subtle cavity-mode-dependent scaling of losses. For cavities with a quadratic dispersion, detuned from the Dirac singularity, the complex frequencies converge towards each other based on cavity size. While the convergence of the real parts of cavity modes towards each other is delayed, going quickly to zero, the normalized complex free-spectral range converge towards a constant solely governed by the loss rate of Bloch bands. The inventors show that this unique scaling of the complex frequency of cavity modes in open-Dirac electromagnetic apertures guarantees single-mode operation of large cavities. The technology demonstrates scaled up single-mode lasing, and confirmed from far-field measurements. By eliminating limits on electromagnetic aperture size, the technology will enable groundbreaking applications for devices of all sizes, operating at any power level. BACKGROUND Single aperture cavities are bounded by higher order transverse modes, fundamentally limiting the power emitted by single-mode lasers, as well as the brightness of quantum light sources. Electromagnetic apertures support cavity modes that rapidly become arbitrarily close with the size of the aperture. The free-spectral range of existing electromagnetic apertures goes to zero when the size of the aperture increases. As a result, scale-invariant apertures or lasers has remained elusive until now.  Surface-emitting lasers have advantages in scalability over commercially widespread vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). When a photonic crystal is truncated to a finite cavity, the continuous bands break up into discrete cavity modes. These higher order modes compete with the fundamental lasing mode and the device becomes more susceptible to multimode lasing response as the cavity size increases. 

The inventors have developed a highly scalable multiplexed approach to increase the density of graphene nanoribbon- (GNR) based transistors. The technology forms a single device/chip (scale to 16,000 to >1,000,000 parallel transistors) on a single integrated circuit for single molecule biomolecular sensing, electrical switching, magnetic switching, and logic operations. This work relates to the synthesis and the manufacture of molecular electronic devices, more particularly sensors, switches, and complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip-based integrated circuits.Bottom-up synthesized graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have emerged as one of the most promising materials for post-silicon integrated circuit architectures and have already demonstrated the ability to overcome many of the challenges encountered by devices based on carbon nanotubes or photolithographically patterned graphene. The new field of synthetic electronics borne out of GNRs electronic devices could enable the next generation of electronic circuits and sensors.  

An improved method for isothermal nucleic acid detection based on a loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique that can be broadly applied for nucleic acid diagnostics.LAMP is an isothermal amplification method that amplifies DNA or RNA. This iteration of LAMP allows for the integration of any short DNA sequence, including tags, restriction enzyme sites, or promoters, into an isothermally amplified amplicon. The technique presented by the inventors allows for the insertion of sequence tags up to 35 nt into the flanking regions of the LAMP amplicon using the forward and backward inner primers (FIP and BIP), and loop primers. The inventors have demonstrated insertion of sequence fragments into the 5’ and middle regions of the FIP and BIP primers, and the 5’ region of the loop primers. In some embodiments, the sequence tag comprises a T7 RNA polymerase promoter, which is then incorporated into the LAMP amplicon (termed RT-LAMP/T7). With the addition of T7 polymerase, the amplicon can be in vitro transcribed, leading to additional amplification of the target molecule into an RNA substrate. This improves the efficiency of the amplification reaction and enables substrate conversion into different nucleic acid types.In other embodiments, the amplified RNA sequence can be detected by CRISPR enzymes, such as RNA-targeting Cas13 systems. 

Electromagnetic noise from surfaces is one of the limiting factors for the performance of solid state and trapped ion quantum information processing architectures. This noise introduces gate errors and reduces the coherence time of the systems. Accordingly, there is great commercial interest in reducing the electromagnetic noise generated at the surface of these systems.Surface treatment using ion bombardment has shown to reduce electromagnetic surface noise by two orders of magnitude. In this procedure ions usually from noble gasses are accelerated towards the surface with energies of 300eV to 2keV. Until recently, commercial ion guns have been repurposed for surface cleaning. While these guns can supply the ion flux and energy required to prepare the surface with the desired quality, they are bulky and limit the laser access, making them incompatible with the requirements for ion trap quantum computing.To address this limitation, UC Berkeley researchers have developed an ion gun that enables in-situ surface treatment without sacrificing high optical access, enabling in situ use with a quantum information processor.

In our electronically connected society, human identification systems are critical to secure authentication, and also enabling for tailored services to individuals. Conventional human identification systems, such as biometric-based or vision-based approaches, require either the deployment of dedicated infrastructure, or the active cooperation of users to carry devices. Consequently, pervasive implementation of conventional human identification systems is expensive, inconvenient, or intrusive to privacy. Recently, WiFi infrastructure, and associated WiFi-enabled mobile and IoT devices have become ubiquitous, and correspondingly, have enabled many context-aware and location-based services. To address the challenges of human identification systems and take advantage of the popularity of WiFi, researchers at UC Berkeley developed a human identification system based on analyzing signals from existing WiFi-enabled devices. This novel device-free approach uses WiFi signal analysis to reveal the unique, fine-grained gait patterns of individuals as the "fingerprint" for human identification.

This technology combines air layer frictional drag reduction (ALDR) with super hydrophobic surfaces (SHS) to achieve frictional drag reduction of ALDR with significantly reduced gas flux. Thus, enabling increased net energy savings. The stable air layer is achieved with lesser gas flux when utilizing a SHS.Periodic air layers may replenish SHS, enabling drag reduction with reduced energy cost. Combinations of SHS and regular or other non-SHS surface may be used to control spreading of gas, thus facilitating formation of ALDR using discrete gas injection points better than previously achievable. Such surface variations could also be used to preferentially guide gas towards or away from propulsion, depending on desired outcome. By controlling ALDR regionally or globally on a surface, with or without SHS, this technology modifies flow around a hull. This mediates forces on partially or fully submerged objects, enabling control of flow patterns, resistance, steering, and/or dynamics.

Earthquakes are unpredictable disasters. Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems have the potential to mitigate this unpredictability by providing seconds to minutes of warning. This warning could enable people to move to safe zones, and machinery (such as mass transit trains) to be slowed or shutdown. The several EEW systems operating around the world use conventional seismic and geodetic network infrastructure – that only exist in a few nations. However, the proliferation of smartphones – which contain accelerometers that could potentially detect earthquakes – offers an opportunity to create EEW systems without the need to build expensive infrastructure. To take advantage of this smartphone opportunity, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a technology to allow earthquake alerts to be issued based on detecting earthquakes underway using the sensors in smartphones. Called MyShake, this EEW system has been shown to record magnitude 5 earthquakes at distances of 10 km or less. MyShake incorporates an on-phone detection capability to distinguish earthquakes from every-day shakes. The UC Berkeley technology also collects earthquake data at a central site where a network detection algorithm confirms that an earthquake is underway as well as estimates the location and magnitude in real-time. This information can then be used to issue an alert of forthcoming ground shaking. Additionally, the seismic waveforms recorded by MyShake could be used to deliver rapid microseism maps, study impacts on buildings, and possibly image shallow earth structure and earthquake rupture kinematics.

Energy Isolation Lock out Tag out (“LOTO”) is a series of CalOSHA and FedOSHA code compliance requirements and is the primary means by which equipment must be rendered “safe” prior to allowing personnel to work on the equipment.  LOTO codes require equipment-specific written procedures identifying all types of energy sources needed to operate the equipment as well as the energy-isolation methods and locations of utility disconnects, stored energy, etc. In addition, every LOTO procedure must be annually verified to confirm the written procedure is still accurate to the equipment.   Whereas current LOTO procedures are typically hand-written or using other time-consuming processes, UC Berkeley authors have created software allowing users to retrieve LOTO procedures in real-time guiding the end-user through a logical thought process to allow them to identify all energy sources and safety processes, and equipment needed.  

To-date, plasmon detection methods have been utilized in the life sciences, electrochemistry, chemical vapor detection, and food safety. While passive surface plasmon resonators have lead to high-sensitivity detection in real time without further contaminating the environment with labels. Unfortunately, because these systems are passively excited, they are intrinsically limited by a loss of metal, which leads to decreased sensitivity. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a novel method to detect distinct molecules in air under normal conditions to achieve sub-parts per billion detection limits, the lowest limit reported. This device can be used detecting a wide array of molecules including explosives or bio molecular diagnostics utilizing the first instance of active plasmon sensor, free of metal losses and operating deep below the diffraction limit for visible light.  This novel detection method has been shown to have superior performance than monitoring the wavelength shift, which is widely used in passive surface plasmon sensors. 

There is a growing interest in point-of-care testing (POCT) where testing is done at or near the site of patient care, since POCT has a short therapeutic turnaround time, decreased process steps where errors can occur and only a small sample volume is required to perform a test.    UC Berkeley researchers have developed a mobile molecular diagnostics system that leverages efficient and dependable blood sampling, automated sample preparation, rapid optical detection of multi-analyte nucleic acids and proteins, and user-friendly systems integration with wireless communication.  The system includes a hand-held automated device with an adaptive sample control module, an optical signal transduction module, and an interface to a smartphone making this a reliable and field-applicable system for point-of-care and on-demand diagnostics.