MBIB News

A protein structure obtained at Beamline 2.0.1 (“Gemini”) at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) has recently been published in the literature and deposited into the Protein Data Bank—two significant firsts for this beamline. The structure helped provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in triggering certain inflammatory diseases. This milestone, which utilized Gemini’s capacity to target crystals smaller than 20 microns, was almost a decade in the making. Simon Morton, now a semi-retired staff scientist at ALS, and Corie Ralston, facility director at the Molecular Foundry and a staff scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division (MBIB), helped bring the microfocus beamline to the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) in 2014. Beamline operations are now led by Marc Allaire, a biophysicist staff scientist in MBIB and head of the BCSB.

Read More in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division faculty scientists James Fraser and James Holton were part of a team that demonstrated that a natural language processing AI can design novel proteins that function as well as naturally occurring ones. This advance could energize the 50-year-old field of protein engineering by speeding the development of new proteins that can be used for almost anything from therapeutics to degrading plastic.

Berkeley Lab Director Mike Witherell has appointed Paul Adams to the position of Associate Lab Director (ALD) for Biosciences. Adams has been serving as the interim ALD for the Biosciences Area since 2021, taking over for Mary Maxon, who is now with Schmidt Futures. Over the past two decades, Adams has played an important role promoting Berkeley Lab’s leadership in structural biology nationally and internationally. As ALD, Adams will continue to advance the Area’s scientific vision and operations excellence while advancing IDEA principles and broadening outreach to institutions serving groups that are underrepresented in STEM.

In a virtual ceremony on January 24, Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences Paul Adams and Jay Keasling, Biological Systems and Engineering senior faculty scientist, were among several Lab staff who received the Department of Energy’s (DOE) highest form of employee recognition for excellence and achievements.

A team of Berkeley Lab scientists has developed a machine-learning pipeline to facilitate segmentation of tomograms of cell membrane structures. The project was an LDRD-funded collaboration among Chao Yang from the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, and Nick Sauter and Karen Davies from the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division.