MBIB News

UC Berkeley researchers have found a promising new drug target within the pathway that controls production of a cell’s thousands of proteins. That is appealing, in part, because it appears to control production of only a few percent of the body’s many proteins, those critical to regulating the growth and proliferation of cells. The study was led by Jamie Cate, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division. Read more on UC Berkeley News.

By examining the chemical makeup of young blood, bioengineers, including David Schaffer, faculty engineer in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, have discovered a drug that could turn back the age clock. Read more in the Berkeley Science Review.

Ignacio Tinoco, Jr., an affiliate in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Divsion, has been a pioneer in many fields, but he is most known for his invaluable contribution to the study of RNA folding. He has taught in UC Berkeley’s chemistry department for 59 years. When he first started on the faculty, he was advised by the dean to wear a tie so that he could be distinguished from the students. Read more in the Berkeley Science Review.

In a pair of breakthrough Nature papers published recently, researchers in Eva Nogales’ Lab at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab (Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division) mapped two important protein functions in unprecedented detail: the role of TFIID, effectively improving our understanding of how our molecular machinery identifies the right DNA to copy; and how proteins unzip double-stranded DNA, which gives us insights into the first-key steps in gene activation.

These papers are representative of the renaissance currently under way in the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) field—driven primarily by the rise of cutting-edge electron detector cameras, sophisticated image processing software and access to NERSC supercomputing resources. Read the full story, written by Linda Vu of NERSC.

Manfred Auer, Staff Scientist and Director of Physical Analysis at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, has agreed to serve as the Head of Cellular and Tissue Imaging Department in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division. Auer has been with Berkeley Lab since 2004, studying inner ear molecular machines, molecular mechanisms in cancer malignancy, biofilms, and bioenergy, as well as developing new imaging methods. He will succeed Bill Moses, who retired on June 29, after 36 years at Berkeley Lab. Moses’ research focused on advanced instrumentation for nuclear medical imaging, including Positron Emission Tomography (PET), which he also applied to the area of environmental bioremediation.