MBIB News

Researchers have leveraged machine learning to create proteins that toggle between two different shapes in response to biological triggers, overcoming a limiting challenge in computational protein design and broadening the potential functionality of designed proteins. Study co-author Banumathi Sankaran, a research scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Bioimaging Division, used the Advanced Light Source (ALS) beamlines in the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) to validate results with X-ray crystallography data. 

Senior Scientist Junko Yano has been named Director of the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division. Over her 22-year career at Berkeley Lab, Yano has become known for her research in natural and artificial photosynthetic systems. She will continue to be a co-principal investigator in the DOE-funded Energy Innovation Hub, the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), and the Center for Electrochemical Dynamics and Reactions on Surface (CEDARS), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.

Stanford researchers have used cryogenic 3D imaging at the National Center for X-ray Tomography (NCXT) to identify a new pathway for clearing misfolded proteins from cells. This work presents a potential therapy target for age-related disorders like Alzheimer, Parkinson, and Huntington Diseases.

Berkeley Lab and Genentech are collaborating to make the next generation of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the drug delivery technology used in the COVID-19 vaccines. With their combined expertise in structural biology and pharmaceutical science, the team is designing LNPs that can precisely deliver vaccines and therapeutics to target tissues while improving the product’s shelf life and duration of action.

A new study published in Nature confirms for the first time that a single photon–the smallest quantity of light possible–can initiate the first step of photosynthesis, one of nature’s essential processes. The study, conducted by an interdisciplinary team led by Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) senior faculty scientist Graham Fleming and Energy Sciences Area senior faculty scientist Birgitta Whaley, solidifies our current understanding of photosynthesis and will help answer questions about how life works on the smallest of scales, where quantum physics and biology meet.