MBIB News

A research team led by Francesca Toma, a staff scientist in the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) and Chemical Sciences Division (CSD), has developed an artificial photosynthesis device with remarkable stability and longevity as it converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into ethylene and hydrogen—two promising sources of renewable fuels. The team used electron microscopy at the Molecular Foundry and ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) at the Advanced Light Source  to reveal how the device degrades with use, then demonstrate how to mitigate those processes.

A team of scientists, including many in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, uncovered new details about the reaction that powers photosynthesis. Understanding this reaction could lead to world-changing advances in technology, medicine, or energy––and also gives insight into how the enzyme photosystem II produces the oxygen we breathe. Their latest work was recently published in Nature Communications and two of the authors, Vittal Yachandra and Philipp Simon, spoke with Strategic Communications about that, shooting stuff with lasers, and why they chose this field of research.

A team led by Eva Nogales, senior faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, has produced the first detailed 3D structure of human SAGA, a 20-piece molecular machine that’s crucial to life. The structure, reported in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, revealed some unexpected differences between the human and yeast versions of SAGA and could guide the development of drugs to treat diseases that arise when this complex malfunctions.

Eva Nogales, a senior faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, was appointed as a foreign member attached to the Natural Sciences Section of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Spain. The Royal Academy, founded in 1847, is tasked with promoting study and research in the mathematical, physical, chemical, geological, and biological sciences, as well as disseminating the knowledge gained thereby. It is made up of a maximum of 72 permanent members, 144 corresponding members, and supernumerary members and foreign members. Nogales, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and professor at UC Berkeley, obtained her bachelor’s degree in physics from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain. Her research specialty involves using electron microscopy (EM) and image analysis, as well as biochemical and biophysical assays to gain mechanistic insights into crucial molecular processes in the life of eukaryotic cells.

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine employed previously constructed DNA-encoded chemistry technology (DEC-tec) libraries to identify several candidate molecules that could inhibit the action of M^pro, the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. In a recent study, the researchers described CDD-1713, a new inhibitor to the enzyme M^pro that is involved in propagating the virus. The X-ray crystallographic data, which was collected by Banumathi Sankaran in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, allowed the researchers to determine that CDD-1713 inhibits the activity of M^pro by binding in the active site of this enzyme.