Two teams of Biosciences Area researchers are representing Berkeley Lab as part of cohort eight of the U.S. Department of Energy’s I-Corps program, an intensive two-month training course that pairs national laboratory researchers with industry mentors to develop viable market pathways for their technologies. The teams, led by Deepti Tanjore and Esther Singer, presented their projects during the opening session held October 1–5 in Golden, Colorado.
Scientists Mining JGI’s Metagenomes Find Miniature Molecular Scissors
By mining JGI’s massive database of microbial genomes and metagenomes, a team led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab has identified a new family of CRISPR-associated (Cas) enzymes found in an ancient branch of the microbial tree of life. Just one-third the size of the seminal Cas9 protein – the business end of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 – the new enzymes, dubbed Cas14, are the smallest functional CRISPR system discovered to date. Owing to its compact size and single-stranded DNA cutting activity, Cas14 may improve rapid CRISPR-based diagnostic systems now under development for infectious diseases, genetic mutations, and cancer.
JGI Builds Genetic Profile of Aspergillus section Nigri
In Nature Genetics, a team led by scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, the JGI, and JBEI present the first large analysis of an Aspergillus fungal subgroup, section Nigri. The results are part of a long-term project to sequence, annotate and analyze the genomes of more than 300 Aspergillus fungi.
In choosing to focus on section Nigri, the researchers recognized the myriad of industrial applications for the fungi within this subgroup. They serve as production organisms for 49 of 260 industrial enzymes and are also very efficient producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites. JGI Fungal Program head Igor Grigoriev said that one of the aims in sequencing the genomes within the Aspergillus genus is to increase the catalog of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAzymes), which can degrade plant cell walls and thus have applications in the DOE mission to develop industrial processes for producing sustainable alternative fuels using candidate bioenergy feedstock crops. Click to read more on the JGI website.
Plant Protection Plan: When Too Much of a Good Thing is Bad
When plants absorb more light energy than they can use—such as during a brief period of intense illumination—they have mechanisms to dissipate the excess energy as heat, thereby avoiding damage to their light-harvesting pigment complexes. Research has suggested that engineering plants’ photoprotection capabilities to minimize productivity loss could increase crop yields by up to 30 percent. And that would go a long way toward meeting future global food demand. However, significant gaps remain in scientists’ understanding of the molecular details underlying these mechanisms, including how they are triggered and their activation dynamics. Now, work by Berkeley Lab scientists, reported in pair of recent papers, provides several key insights into the mechanisms underlying one type of photoprotection.
Jennifer Doudna Honored by American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society bestowed its highest accolade, the Medal of Honor, on Jennifer Doudna, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), and four others during an October 18 ceremony in Washington, D.C. The medal is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer through basic research, clinical research, or public health interventions.
Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology and of chemistry at UC Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin were honored for their invention of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, which has transformed basic cancer research and spawned new cancer therapies currently undergoing trials.
Read more from UC Berkeley News.
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