MBIB News

The Kv7 family of voltage-gated potassium channels control excitability in the heart, brain, and ear, and harbor mutations associated with arrhythmias, epilepsy, and deafness. A recent study, led by Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) faculty scientist Daniel Minor’s group in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF, used both diffraction and scattering beamlines of ALS-ENABLE to reveal a universal switch mechanism by which the calcium sensor protein calmodulin controls the action of these channels. The findings, reported in the journal Neuron, provide a key link between Kv7 channel activity and cellular signaling pathways. Greg Hura, a research scientist in MBIB, was also a co-author on the paper. Watch a video detailing the work.

Catalytic carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ reduction is an important technology for the production of fuels and chemicals. Mechanistic studies have suggested that both electro- and photocatalytic approaches may share a common intermediate: a carbon dioxide radical anion (CO₂^–) bound to the catalyst’s surface. Now, using rapid-scan Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy in combination with isotopic labelling, Heinz Frei, a senior scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), and colleagues have identified a carbon dioxide dimer radical anion (C₂O₄^–) as the crucial surface intermediate during the photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ on copper nanoparticles. Although recent electrochemical investigations have suggested the existence of this one-electron surface intermediate, this study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), provides the first direct experimental evidence. Read more in this Nature Catalysis research highlight.

Krishna Niyogi, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) and chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, identified a protein called Photosystem II Subunit S (PsbS) involved in regulating photosynthetic light harvesting and hypothesized that increasing the amount of this protein in a plant might make photosynthesis more efficient. In collaboration with researchers at University of Illinois, Urbana, he put this theory to the test. In field trials, the researchers found that increasing the expression of the gene for PsbS, which is found in all plants, improved crops’ water-use efficiency—the ratio of carbon dioxide entering the plant to water escaping—by 25 percent, without significantly sacrificing photosynthesis or yields. The extra PsbS protein tricks plants into partially closing their stomata, the microscopic pores in the leaf that allow water to escape. The study, published March 6 in Nature Communications, is part of an international research project, Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more at UC Berkeley News.

Landry was recognized for her work on engineering nanosensors to image molecules in the body, focusing on neuromodulators such as dopamine in the brain. The fellowship, established in 1934, honors “early-career scholars whose achievements mark them as among the very best scientific minds working today.” Read more in Berkeley News.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Vollum Institute have discovered how chemically diverse drugs used to treat depression and anxiety disorders interact with the protein that transports serotonin in the brain. Jonathan Coleman and Eric Gouaux used X-ray crystallography techniques at two U.S. Department of Energy national user facilities to collect data: Molecular research was carried out at the Biosciences’ Berkeley Center for Structural Biology, beamline 5.0.2, located at the Advanced Light Source; and at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), at Argonne National Laboratory. Their findings, published in the January 29 issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, could open the way for the development of additional forms of antidepressants collectively known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.

Both OHSU and APS highlighted the discovery.