For the past several months, teams of bioscientists have utilized Berkeley Lab’s world-class research facilities to contribute to the national response to COVID-19, resulting in a wide range of promising research. Four videos showcase researcher contributions from across the Biosciences Area, which aim to help address some of the many scientific challenges posed by the pandemic:
Greg Bontemps, senior research associate, and Jan-Philip Prahl, senior process engineer, are featured in the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit video. They describe how the ABPDU is helping two biotech companies ramp up production of potential COVID-19-fighting technologies so they can be ready to meet global demand.
DOE Joint Genome Institute and Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology researchers are working to decipher the virus-bacterial cell network. Postdoctoral scholar Maria Dzunkova talks about studying environmental viruses in order to better understand how they interact with and infect host bacterial cells. This will allow researchers to rapidly translate the fundamental mechanisms observed into novel strategies for detecting and mitigating emerging infections by both viruses and drug-resistant bacteria.
Bioscientists Marc Allaire, Greg Hura, and Jay Nix relate how they are using X-ray technology at the Advanced Light Source to gain a better understanding of the structure of the COVID-19 virus’s molecular machinery and providing critical information for other scientists working on drug and vaccine development.
Deepika Awasthi, a project scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division, explores a delivery platform that would allow a probiotic COVID-19 vaccine to be administered orally at home, minimizing hospital visits and the use of syringes.
Read more about all of these coronavirus-related projects in this Berkeley Lab press release.
