MBIB News

Jennifer Doudna, faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will receive the 2018 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Award in Chemical Sciences. According to the NAS award announcement, Doudna is honored for her “pioneering discoveries on how RNA can fold to function in complex ways,” and her invention, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, of “the technology for efficient site-specific genome engineering using the CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases for genome editing — a breakthrough technology which has had an immediate and wide impact on all areas of both basic and applied life sciences.”

For the first time, University of California, Berkeley scientists have used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to disable a defective gene that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in mice, extending their lifespan by 25 percent. The team was led by David Schaffer, faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging.

A protein that protects plants from damage caused by too much light energy has been found by a team of researchers led by Kris Niyogi, faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division. Alizée Malnoë, a postdoctoral researcher in Niyogi’s group, is the lead author on the study published in the journal The Plant Cell. Plants with deficient levels of the lipocalin protein are less able to dissipate excess light energy. Scientists will explore how this energy dissipation process is turned on and off, and whether manipulation of light usage could lead to higher crop yields. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

Markita Landry, MBIB faculty scientist and UC Berkeley assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is a recipient of the second annual New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award for plant efficiency. Landry is interested in discovering routes for nanoparticle transport across plant cell walls and chloroplast membranes for use in GMO-free gene editing.

The Director’s Distinguished Women in Science Speaker Series at Berkeley Lab kicked off on Monday, November 20, with Jennifer Doudna, a faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, interviewed by NPR science correspondent Joe Palca. Doudna and Palca began the conversation by highlighting a common connection: They are both graduates of Pomona College in Southern California. From there, they covered a lot of ground, providing a vivid backdrop for the answer to the most pressing question of the day: How did Doudna discover the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tool?