BSE News

Thanks to the Energy Department’s Small Business Voucher pilot, bioenergy startup Mango Materials is testing new processes of producing renewable plastics that are biodegradable and petroleum-free. Last fall, Mango Materials received a $200,000 voucher to work with Berkeley Lab. Through this partnership, the company gets access to Berkeley’s Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU). Read more on Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy website.

As Cyclotron Road, a program launched as a pilot by Berkeley Lab in 2014, continues to hits its stride, Berkeley Lab scientists are also benefiting from this success. In this article Todd Pray, ABPDU’s Program Head, comments on how the collaboration with Visolis has been mutually beneficial. Read more on the Berkeley Lab Newscenter.

Seven LBNL Biosciences Area researchers are among the 47 new investigators chosen by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub to receive up to $1.5 million each to conduct cutting-edge biomedical research — with no strings attached. The investigator awards are the first individual grants by the CZ Biohub as it seeks to foster unconventional scientific exploration and encourage researchers to invent new tools to accelerate the pace of discovery. Senior investigators will each receive 1.5 million over five years while the younger faculty will receive half the amount, $750,000.

Biosciences Area’s senior investigators are: Jill Banfield and Michal Maharbiz (EGSB), Dan Fletcher and Amy Herr (BSE). The junior investigators are Ke Xu (MBIB) and Wenjun Zhang (EGSB). Read more at UC Berkeley News.

Berkeley Lab researchers found that the sticky residue left behind by tobacco smoke led to changes in weight and blood cell count in mice. These latest findings add to a growing body of evidence that thirdhand smoke exposure may be harmful.

Researchers from the Biosciences Biological Systems and Engineering Division (BSE) and the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) teamed up with scientists at UC San Francisco and Nanjing Medical University for the study. The findings, reported in a Feb. 3 paper in Scientific Reports, suggest that the dangers associated with smoking continue long after the cigarette is snuffed out. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

The projects of 13 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY17 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. The funded projects cover a broad range of topics including the study of microbiomes in relation to their environment, plants, and gut health; catalysis for solar conversion to energy; and genomic expression in tissue. Among them were three projects related to Lab-wide initiatives. Together, these efforts account for 17.5% of the $25.2 million allocated. Lab-wide, a total of 88 projects were selected from a field of 166 proposals.