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Finding the Missing Step of an Important Molecular Process
Lysine is an important amino acid that must be supplied in our diets, as our bodies can’t produce lysine on their own. Most cereal grains have low levels of lysine, and scientists have worked to breed crops with higher lysine levels. However, the biochemical processes that break down lysine in plants weren’t fully understood. New Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) research, published in Nature Communications, reveals this last missing step of lysine catabolism.
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Enigmatic Protein Sculpts DNA to Repair Damage
Biosciences Area researchers and their collaborators have determined how a protein called XPG binds to and reshapes damaged DNA, illuminating its role in averting genetic disease and cancer.
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Biosciences Area Projects Receive Technology Commercialization Funding Awards from Department of Energy
Two projects from the Biosciences Area were awarded $1 million from the DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) to further collaborative research with industry partners. The research will enable rapid strain engineering for the production of biofuels and bioproducts from low-cost gas feedstock, and produce a new aviation biofuel precursor from cellulosic biomass.
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Nick Everson to Rejoin JGI as Ops Deputy
As Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Director Nigel Mouncey and Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division Director Blake Simmons shared in their June 4 emails, Nick Everson will rejoin the JGI as Deputy for Operations starting on July 1. He will succeed Ray Turner, who will retire from Berkeley Lab on June 29.
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Smart Farms of the Future: Making Bioenergy Crops More Environmentally Friendly
Three projects, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), leverage Berkeley Lab’s strengths in artificial intelligence, sensors, and ecological biology to make agriculture more sustainable and more profitable. They aim to quantify and reduce the carbon intensity of agriculture—including the farming of biofuel feedstocks such as corn, soy, and sorghum—while also increasing yield. Two of the new projects are part of the SMARTFARM program of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This initiative aspires to make the biofuel supply chain carbon negative, which would greatly improve biofuel’s benefits to the broader economy and environment.
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