Rebecca W. Heald

Dr. Rebecca Heald is Department Co-Chair and Flora Lamson Hewlett Chair and Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology at University of California, Berkeley. She is interested in mechanisms of cell division and biological size control. Her group investigates how the microtubule cytoskeleton self-organizes to form the spindle, a dynamic cellular structure that functions to segregate a complete set of chromosomes to daughter cells during cell division. Current projects investigate how mitotic chromosome size scales with cell size, and leverage ploidy manipulation and a variety of amphibian species to explore relationships among genome size, cell size, embryonic development, and metabolism as well as the molecular basis of variation that contributes to genomic instability and evolution.

In addition to research, Heald's overarching professional goal is to provide mentorship that supports the career development of her lab members as well as junior faculty in her department and the broader community.

Heald graduated from Hamilton College, received her Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.