The Biosciences Area launched its Twitter account one year ago. @LBNLBioSci has served as a tool to disseminate the Area’s achievements in energy, environment and health, and has so far attracted 409 followers. To celebrate the one year anniversary, the Biosciences communications team has released a listicle on seven of the Area’s bacterial, fungal and microbial discoveries. Read the listicle here and follow @LBNLBioSci.
Biosciences Area Faculty Scientist James Hurley (pictured), who will use insights from molecular structure to fight neurodegeneration, has been added to the ranks of the Bakar Fellows Program. This program supports UC Berkeley faculty working to apply scientific discoveries to real-world issues. Three materials scientists, Ali Javey, Jeffrey Long, and Jie Yao, were also recognized. Read more at Berkeley Research.
Berkeley scientists — including Biosciences’s Jillian Banfield (secondary affiliation with the Environmental Genomics & System Biology Division) and Jennifer Doudna (Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division) — have discovered simple CRISPR systems similar to CRISPR-Cas9 — a gene-editing tool that has revolutionized biology — in previously unexplored bacteria that have eluded efforts to grow them in the laboratory. Read more at Berkeley News.
Ignacio Tinoco, Jr., former affiliate in Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging and professor emeritus of chemistry at UC Berkeley, died on Nov. 15 at the age of 85. A pioneer in many fields, Tinoco is most well-known for his study of RNA folding over his 60-year career. “The echoes of his discoveries are everywhere in modern biochemistry and biology. He trained generations of RNA scientists, imbuing us with his humility, rigor, and wry sense of humor,” said his former student Jody Puglisi, professor and chair of the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University. Read more at C&EN.
Jennifer Doudna, faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division and molecular and cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, together with four other CRISPR pioneers, were among the top five named runner ups of Time Magazine’s 2016 Person of the Year. They were chosen for their roles in the development of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system, a revolutionary tool that promises cures for many heritable diseases. It is the 90th time Time Magazine has named “the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year,” the magazine states; this year, they chose Donald Trump.
Doudna shares the recognition with Emmanuelle Charpentier at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT , Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania, and Kathy Niakan at the Francis Crick Institute in London. Read more about their pioneering work in Time Magazine’s article, The CRISPR Pioneers, their breakthrough work could change the world.
Was this page useful?
