Author

Melvin Soriano

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720; Department of Bioengineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720;

Listed by name: these papers carry no ORCID for this author, so different people with the same name may be mixed together.

Biology Disciplines

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Synthetic Biology· 1 Systems Biology· 1

Signature Assays, Organisms & Methods

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Assay:protein sequence· 2 Organism:fungi (other)· 1 Approach:machine learning (classical)· 1 Research Focus:protein design· 1 Research Focus:protein structure prediction· 1 Approach:statistical model· 1 Organism:yeast· 1

Frequent Co-Authors

Claire J. LeBlanc· 2 shared Marissa A. ZinteliD· 2 shared Sanjana R. Kotha· 2 shared Aaron FultineeriD· 1 shared Aditya Udupa· 1 shared Aditya Vunnum· 1 shared Angelica Lam· 1 shared Angelica W. Y. Lam· 1 shared

Activity by Year

2026-2026 · peak 2/yr

Co-Author Collaboration Network

10 top collaborators · 33 mutual co-author links

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2 shared papersSynthetic Biology

Claire J. LeBlanc

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2 papers

Recent·Most cited

Machine learning guided design of strong transcriptional activation domains

Marissa A. Zintel, Claire J. LeBlanc, Sanjana R. Kotha, Melvin Soriano, Rishaan J. Bansal, Daniel Aguilera, Touss Majidi, Izaiah Ornelas, Liam D. Kirkpatrick, Aditya Udupa, Gean Hu, Pooja Agarwal, Angelica W. Y. Lam, James K. Nunez, Patrick M. Shih, , Max V. Staller

The paper designs functional transcriptional activation domains using machine learning and experimental validation, finding that over 90% of predicted sequences work in yeast.

bioRxiv · Nov 2, 2026 · PreprintSynthetic Biology

Evolutionary turnover of key amino acids explains conservation of function without conservation of sequence in transcriptional activation domains

Claire J. LeBlanc, Jordan Stefani, Melvin Soriano, Angelica Lam, Marissa A. Zintel, Sanjana R. Kotha, Emily Chase, Giovani Pimentel-Solorio, Aditya Vunnum, G.F. Hu, Katherine Flug, Aaron Fultineer, Niklas F. C. Hummel, Max Valentín Staller

The paper shows that function can be conserved in transcriptional activation domains without sequence conservation through evolutionary turnover of key residues.

PLoS Genetics · Mar 16, 2026Peer-reviewedSystems Biology