The National Academy of Medicine has added two UC Berkeley faculty members to its ranks of scholars, the academy announced Monday.
Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Mobile phone-based microscopy
Daniel Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering and biophysics, was recognized for his work developing mobile phone-based microscopy to diagnose infectious diseases in developing countries, and for contributions to the mechanistic understanding of biological self-assembly and mechanotransduction.
CellScope technology, developed by Fletcher's lab, turns the camera of a mobile phone or tablet computer into a high-quality light microscope. By combining mobile microscopy with automation and wireless communication, Fletcher created new ways to tackle applications, from diagnosing infectious disease and detecting ear infections to screening for diabetic retinopathy.
A transformed understanding of maternal, child health disparities
Michael C. Lu, dean of the School of Public Health, was recognized for fundamentally transforming our understanding of maternal and child health disparities through his life-course perspective on women's health, catalyzing a paradigm shift in research, practice and policy.
Lu's framework challenged the prevailing focus on prenatal care by demonstrating that birth outcomes reflect a woman's entire life story - from early childhood experiences that shape stress response systems to cumulative adversity across adolescence and adulthood. His research revealed that socioeconomic status alone couldn't explain persistent disparities: College-educated Black women still faced higher risks than white women without high school diplomas.
As director of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau under President Barack Obama, Lu oversaw programs serving more than 60 million Americans annually, launching initiatives that contributed to a 22% reduction in early elective deliveries in the South and a 57% decline in in-hospital maternal mortality nationwide.
Established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. The academy's Articles of Organization stipulate that at least one-quarter of the membership is selected from fields outside the health professions, including law, engineering, social sciences and the humanities.
