Sorghum is a promising bioenergy crop. However, the thick secondary cell walls of the stems of this plant are difficult to break down into components that could become fuel. Recent research led by the Joint BioEnergy Institute on structural details of specific molecules and their interactions in sorghum grass cell walls suggests ways to ease deconstruction of this bioenergy crop.
Shine On: Avalanching Nanoparticles Break Barriers to Imaging Cells in Real Time
The diffraction limit is a fundamental property of light that has long prevented optical microscopes from bringing into focus anything smaller than half the wavelength of visible light (~200 nanometers), which is at least an order of magnitude larger than the tiny protein machines that keep cells, and us, running. A team of researchers co-led scientists in Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry and Columbia University’s school of engineering developed a new class of crystalline material that, when used as a microscopic probe, overcomes the diffraction limit without heavy computation or a super-resolution microscope. The amazing new material, called avalanching nanoparticles (ANPs), will advance high-resolution, real-time bio-imaging of a cell’s organelles and proteins, as well as the development of ultrasensitive optical sensors and neuromorphic computing that mimics the neural structure of the human brain, among other applications. The work was reported in a cover article in the journal Nature.
Susannah Tringe Honored with the Lawrence Award
The Department of Energy has announced that eight distinguished scientists and engineers will receive the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, one of DOE’s highest honors. Named after Berkeley Lab’s founder, the award was established in 1959 and recognizes mid-career researchers for exceptional contributions supporting the DOE and its mission to advance the national, economic, and energy security of the United States.
Scientists Map Coronavirus Protein Linked to Immune Evasion, Disease Severity
A team of UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab researchers used X-ray crystallography performed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) to determine the atomic structure of ORF8, a protein secreted by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is thought to help the pathogen evade and dampen response from human immune cells.
Unique X-Ray Microscope Reveals Dazzling 3D Cell Images
A team based at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source is making waves with its new approach for whole-cell visualization, using the world’s first soft X-ray tomography (SXT) microscope built for biological and biomedical research. In its latest study, published in Science Advances, the team used its platform to reveal never-before-seen details about insulin secretion in pancreatic cells taken from rats. This work was done in collaboration with a consortium of researchers dedicated to whole-cell modeling, called the Pancreatic β-Cell Consortium.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- …
- 207
- Next Page »
Was this page useful?