Major event: Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt giving an inspirational talk to IRIS members and high school students at Stanford University on August 21, 2025, at 5 PM

We have the greatest honor to host Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Michael Levitt at Stanford University on August 21, 2025, at 5 PM. Laureate will provide an inspirational talk and Q&As to our members and high school students. Parents and siblings are welcome to join the event. After the talk, we will host a lab tour of Dr. Bingwei Lu's Lab at Stanford to learn essential neuroscience research techniques and interact with brilliant researchers. If you're interested in attending this once-in-a-lifetime event, please email us at irisresearch.outreach@gmail.com

June 13th, 2025 @UCSF Mission Bay Campus

On June 14th, the leadership team and students from across many high schools had the honor and opportunity to visit the UCSF Mission Bay Campus and meet Dr. Su Guo. Dr. Guo is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

During the visit, students toured Dr. Guo's lab, where they were introduced to breakthrough research initiatives (neural stem cell division and neural circuitry of stress) and the novel methods (zebrafish screening, two-photon microscopes, computational neural networks) used by her team. Dr. Guo's lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system development and function. Students had the privilege to see how Dr. Guo’s research can be translated into new medicines for neurodegenerative diseases and anxiety medications.

We extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Guo and UCSF for hosting us. The students gained valuable insights, and we eagerly anticipate our next visit!

April 4, 2025 @UC Berkeley and QB3

On April 4th, the leadership team and a few others visited the UC Berkeley Biotechnology facility, we had to honor and opportunity to meet Dr David Schaffer. We were able to recruit several students from Richmond and Carlmont High School to tour his lab and the QB3 incubator space. Dr Schaffer is the Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineer, Bioengineering and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley, where he also serves as the Director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and the Director of QB3-Berkeley. (schafferlab.berkeley.edu) In the Schaffer lab, students were shown the ground breaking process of the lab’s initiatives (improving viral vectors and stem cell therapy) and the methods used to do so (direction evolution); students had the privilege to be exposed to technology from fundament research translated into potential therapeutics and companies in the Biomolecular field. Thank you so much to Dr Schaffer and Stanley Hall for having us, we learned a lot and cannot wait to be back!