MBIB News

Zika virus is a mosquito-borne infectious disease linked to certain birth defects in infants in South and Central America and the United States. A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researcher, Banumathi Sankaran, worked as part of a multi-institutional team led by Cheng Kao, professor at Indiana University, and Pingwei Li, associate professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU), to map a key viral protein called NS5. Necessary to virus reproduction, NS5 contains two enzyme activities: one reduces the body’s ability to mount an immune response against infection and the other helps start the genetic replication process.

Cryo-electron microscopy is a critical tool used to advance biochemical knowledge. Now Pavel Afonine, research scientist, and Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division Director Paul Adams have extended cryo-EM’s impact further by developing a new computational algorithm that was instrumental in constructing a 3-D atomic-scale model of bacteriophage P22 for the first time. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

The discovery of a chemical compound that halts the production of a small set of proteins while leaving general protein production untouched suggests a new drug search strategy: Find compounds that target undesired proteins before they are even made. In a paper appearing in the journal PLOS Biology, described the work of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. Faculty scientist Jamie Cate, Structural Biology Department Head in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, was a senior author of this study. Read the full story in Berkeley News.

Curved beta sheets are important for the architecture of protein cavities, such as enzyme active sites and ligand-binding pockets. Beginning by analyzing classic protein formations and running folding simulations, University of Washington (UW) researchers under the leadership of David Baker designed six protein folds inspired by naturally occurring protein superfamilies. A research report published in the January 13 issue of Science describes how a multi-institutional team of scientists compared the predicted models to physical structures of these designed proteins.

In honor of National Women’s History Month, Berkeley Lab, in this article, looked back at how the Lab’s Women Scientists & Engineers Council (WSEC) got started and what issues it is currently working on. The WSEC is a program of the Lab’s Diversity and Inclusion Office and was founded in 2008 by what longtime members like to call the “founding mothers”—Natalie Roe of the Physics Division, Nancy Brown of the Energy Technologies Area, and Cecilia Aragon, formerly of the Computational Research Division.

At the moment, WSEC board members from Biosciences include Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division’s Astrid Terry and Lauren Lui; Susan Tsutakawa of the Molecular Biophysics & Integrative Bioimaging Division currently serves as the committee chair.