MBIB News

Synthetic biologists have successfully engineered microbes to make chemicals cheaply and more sustainably. However, researchers have been limited by the fact that microbes can only make molecules using chemical reactions seen in nature.

A collaboration between scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley has engineered the microbe E. coli to produce a molecule that, until now, could only be synthesized in a laboratory. 

As part of an international collaboration, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility, and Oxford and Bristol Universities in England have developed a novel sample delivery system that expands the limited toolkit for performing dynamic structural biology studies of enzyme catalysis, which have so far mostly been limited to a small number of light-driven enzymes.

Naomi Ginsberg, a faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, is among the 2021 class of Fellows elected by the American Physical Society (APS). The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise in research, applications, leadership, service, or education. Ginsberg, who is also a UC Berkeley associate professor of chemistry, was cited for her innovative development of spatiotemporally resolved imaging and spectroscopy methods—as well as their applications in elucidating energy transport in hierarchical and heterogeneous materials and in the formation and transformation of said materials.

A technology developed by Cynthia McMurray, a senior scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, and her team shows great promise for diagnosing Alzheimer disease before symptoms arise. This disease affects millions of people worldwide and is estimated to be the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Richmond Sarpong, biochemist faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division has been announced as the 2021 Edward Leete awardee by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. Sarpong, who is also a UC Berkeley chemistry professor, is being specifically recognized for his outstanding contributions to research in organic chemistry and teaching.