An April 5 US News & World Report story on thirdhand smoke (THS), the toxic contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished, quoted Bo Hang, biochemist staff scientist in the Biological Systems & Engineering Division. Previous studies, led by Hang, have found that THS can damage DNA in human cells; subsequent animal studies by others have found that THS damages the liver and lungs, impedes the healing of wounds and can contribute to hyperactivity. Now, new research by Martins Green et al. published in PLOS ONE shows that, in mice, THS causes insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes. “This is a relatively new area,” says Hang, who continues to study the potential harmful effects of thirdhand smoke. Read the full story.
Doudna Awarded $1.5 million from The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group
Billionaire Paul Allen has pledged $100 Million to fund life sciences research. The gift represents his initial commitment toward a 10 year plan for The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a new Seattle-based organization recently launched. The initial round of grants includes a $1.5 million grant for molecular and cell biology researcher Jennifer Doudna, who co-invented the CRISPR gene editing technology. She will study new ways of editing genes by targeting RNA. Read more on the Forbes article.
How Many Synthetic Genes Does it Take to Sustain Life?
Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created a stripped-down life form, with a minimal number of genes needed to keep it going. They hope to use it as a platform to create designer life forms, and say it’s already taught some important, and humbling, lessons about the essence of life. Berkeley Lab’s Adam Arkin, Interim Biosciences Deputy for Science, and Samuel Deutsch, DOE Joint Genome Institute, comment on the research in this NBC News story.
DOE Hosts #WomenInSTEM Twitter Chat Across National Labs
Representatives from three national labs, including Berkeley Lab’s Sarah Richardson, a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division, as well as DOE Deputy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall (pictured), Jo Handelsman of the White House Office of Science & Technology, and Dot Harris of Economic Impact & Diversity, participated in the March 22 Twitter chat, in honor of Women’s History Month. Read more at the DOE’s Storify.
DOE JGI Helps Prove Genetic Code’s Flexibility
“Our approach provides new evidence of a limited but unequivocal plasticity of the genetic code whose secrets still lie hidden in the majority of unsequenced organisms.”
Published ahead online March 16, 2016 in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Ed., researchers from the DOE Joint Genome Institute and Yale University have discovered that microorganisms recognize more than one codon for the rare, genetically encoded amino acid selenocysteine. The finding adds credence to recent studies indicating that an organism’s genetic vocabulary is not as constrained as had been long held. Read more about this study on the DOE JGI website.
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