Bertozzi for the Win

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that University of California, Berkeley, professor Carolyn Bertozzi has been awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize — which "honors an outstanding mid-career inventor who is dedicated to improving our world through technological invention and innovation," according to the Lemelson-MIT program press release — for her work in the field of biotechnology. Bertozzi, who teaches chemistry and molecular and cellular biology, was awarded the honor for her research in manipulating living cells and their processes, the Chronicle says, adding that her work has led to advances in diagnosing and treating cancer and inflammatory diseases. The press release from Lemelson-MIT says Bertozzi is currently working on manipulating processes within living cells to engineer their surfaces and secreted proteins. She and her team study glycans and are developing nanotechnologies to probe biological systems, the release says.