MBIB News

Advances in cryogenic electron microscopy have enabled an international team of experts to visualize the structure of a cyanobacterial phycobilisome with nearly atomic resolution. The work, a collaboration among researchers at Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab, and the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, was published in Nature. Knowing the position of different proteins and pigments helps scientist better understand this natural process and can inspire future applications in areas such as renewable energy and environmental remediation.

A new paper from Biosciences researchers in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) reveals the possibility that many of the proteins we thought we knew actually exist in other, unknown shapes.

Seven innovative technologies from Berkeley Lab have been honored with a 2022 R&D 100 Award. Biosciences Area researchers contributed to two different products that were awarded.

Neslihan Taş, a research scientist with the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area who is affiliated with the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, is studying how microbial processes shift as arctic permafrost melts. She’s working with the BSISB team to leverage infrared tools to reveal new patterns in biogeochemical cycles.

Researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute conducted the first systematic study of Holliday junctions—the nexus of two segments of double-stranded DNA—using crystallography techniques performed at the Advanced Light Source, the Argonne Photon Source, and the National Synchrotron Light Source II.