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Outside In: The Secret Life of Galectin-1 and its Dual Role in the Breast
Whenever sugars are mentioned in relation to health and disease, it is in the context of metabolism and gaining calories. However, sugars have many other functions in our physiology and are found on cell surfaces and in extracellular matrix (ECM), forming an integral part of tissue microenvironment. Here they bind to their partner ligands, known as lectins, forming lectin-sugar interactions that have been known to play important roles in physiological and pathological contexts. In an article published and featured on the cover of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) last week, the laboratory of Distinguished Scientist Mina Bissell…
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ABPDU Partners with Small Businesses in DOE Pilot
Through the second round of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Vouchers Pilot, eight small businesses have been awarded vouchers, totaling $1.1 million, to work with Berkeley Lab to bring their next-generation clean energy to the marketplace faster. The vouchers pay for expertise and use of facilities that help small businesses advance their technologies toward commercialization. Several Biosciences partnerships were established: Mango Materials and Zymochem bioenergy projects were awarded vouchers to work with the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU). Also, a Heliobiosys project will be performed using the capabilities of both the ABPDU and Sandia National Laboratories.…
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How Does a Bird Know What’s Coming Next?
Bengalese finches, songbirds that have been used to research the learning, perception, and production of bird song, are the model system used by Berkeley Lab scientist Kristofer Bouchard and Michael Brainard of UC San Francisco to determine the relationship between song sequence structure and brain activity. As reported in their PNAS article published last week, “Auditory-induced neural dynamics in sensory-motor circuitry predict learned temporal and sequential statistics of birdsong,” the researchers studied how the birds brain forms predictions for the timing and identity of specific “syllables” that it has learned to sing.
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JBEI Scientists Explore Novel Enzyme for Aromatic Biofuel Synthesis
In a Scientific Reports (Nature) paper entitled “In vitro characterization of phenylacetate decarboxylase, a novel enzyme catalyzing toluene biosynthesis in an anaerobic microbial community”, researchers at JBEI investigated an enzyme that could enable first-time biochemical production of the widely used octane booster, toluene. Read more on the JBEI website.
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Carpooling and Companionship Go Hand in Hand for Stacey Gauny
In the August 8 edition of Berkeley Lab’s Commuter Chronicles Stacey Gauny of the Biological Systems & Engineering Division discussed why she started carpooling from El Sobrante to the Lab more than 20 years ago, and encourages others who have considered carpooling to give it a shot. Stacey, a principal research associate in the Kronenberg Lab, has been a division representative of the Lab’s Carpool Program Focus Group for the Vehicle Access and Alternative Transportation Advisory Group since its initiation last December. Read her story here.
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