MBIB News

Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which allows an unprecedented level of resolution, Biosciences researchers compared the structure of photosystem I in the moss Physcomitrella patens with its structure in the small flowering land plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Because moss evolved after algae but before vascular land plants, such comparisons can shed light on how plants evolved to move from the ocean to land.

By mining JGI’s massive database of microbial genomes and metagenomes, a team led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab has identified a new family of CRISPR-associated (Cas) enzymes found in an ancient branch of the microbial tree of life. Just one-third the size of the seminal Cas9 protein – the business end of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 – the new enzymes, dubbed Cas14, are the smallest functional CRISPR system discovered to date. Owing to its compact size and single-stranded DNA cutting activity, Cas14 may improve rapid CRISPR-based diagnostic systems now under development for infectious diseases, genetic mutations, and cancer.

When plants absorb more light energy than they can use—such as during a brief period of intense illumination—they have mechanisms to dissipate the excess energy as heat, thereby avoiding damage to their light-harvesting pigment complexes. Research has suggested that engineering plants’ photoprotection capabilities to minimize productivity loss could increase crop yields by up to 30 percent. And that would go a long way toward meeting future global food demand. However, significant gaps remain in scientists’ understanding of the molecular details underlying these mechanisms, including how they are triggered and their activation dynamics. Now, work by Berkeley Lab scientists, reported in pair of recent papers, provides several key insights into the mechanisms underlying one type of photoprotection.

The American Cancer Society bestowed its highest accolade, the Medal of Honor, on Jennifer Doudna, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), and four others during an October 18 ceremony in Washington, D.C. The medal is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer through basic research, clinical research, or public health interventions.

Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology and of chemistry at UC Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin were honored for their invention of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, which has transformed basic cancer research and spawned new cancer therapies currently undergoing trials.

Read more from UC Berkeley News.

Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging senior faculty scientist John Kuriyan has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, which recognizes researchers who have made major contributions to the advancement of medical sciences, health care, and public health.

Kuriyan, who is also a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley and an HHMI Investigator, has been recognized for his work in understanding eukaryotic cell signaling regulation. Read more at Berkeley News.