MBIB News

Robert Glaeser, senior scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, was awarded the Glenn T. Seaborg Medal by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). At a symposium held on November 1o, Glaeser and Richard Henderson, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2017, were recognized for their “crucial contributions to the science of electron cryo-microscopy.”

Bacteria deploy various biological mechanisms to fend off their competition, which are often other bacteria. In some cases, they secrete toxins in their fight for survival. A newly discovered toxin stands out from others in the battle for microbial domination. Marc Allaire, Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division researcher, worked with a team led by Joseph Mougous of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Washington School of Medicine, to characterize this new toxin.

A research team led by Nitash Balsara, a senior faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at Berkeley Lab and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Berkeley, has adapted a powerful electron-based imaging technique to obtain an image of atomic-scale structure in a synthetic polymer. The team of researchers from Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley included the late Ken Downing of the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division.

Using the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser, an international collaboration led by scientists at Berkeley Lab and SLAC captured the all four stable oxidation states of photosystem II— plus two transitional states—at natural temperature and the highest resolution to date.

Data collected at the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) in the Advanced Light Source (ALS) has provided new structural insights into an antibody that protects against the bacterium that causes meningitis and sepis; a protein that unwinds quadruple DNA/RNA helixes; and an antibody targeting interleukin-2 that may provide a means of treating autoimmune disorders.