EGSB News

Berkeley Lab is part of a multi-laboratory working group that recently received DOE Office of Science funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to conduct R&D to help improve the nation’s COVID-19 testing capabilities. Three of our Biosciences Area researchers are helping to lead the Lab’s efforts.

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division Director N. Louise Glass has announced several changes to the organization and leadership of the division, effective May 1.

Mary Maxon has announced N. Louise Glass’s intention to step down as Director of the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division as of May 23, 2020. Susannah Tringe, senior scientist and Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Deputy of User Programs, has agreed to serve as Interim EGSB Division Director while a world-wide search for Glass’s replacement is conducted.

The projects of 15 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY21 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.

The Mammalian Functional Genomics Laboratory in Biosciences’ Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division has developed a higher-throughput transgenic mouse assay to evaluate the disease-causing potential of human variants in enhancers that turn on gene expression during development. The new approach leverages the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology to create transgenic mice that carry an enhancer-reporter construct at a specific “safe harbor” location in the mouse genome. Because the transgenes are integrated in the same location in the genome there are no position effects, so fewer mice are needed to get reproducible results. To demonstrate proof of principle, the researchers used the new method—which they dubbed enSERT (enhancer inSERTion)—to examine nearly a thousand variants of one of the most well-characterized human enhancers that is associated with polydactyly (extra fingers or toes).