Biosciences News

A team of scientists, including many in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, uncovered new details about the reaction that powers photosynthesis. Understanding this reaction could lead to world-changing advances in technology, medicine, or energy––and also gives insight into how the enzyme photosystem II produces the oxygen we breathe. Their latest work was recently published in Nature Communications and two of the authors, Vittal Yachandra and Philipp Simon, spoke with Strategic Communications about that, shooting stuff with lasers, and why they chose this field of research.

The Agile BioFoundry (ABF) hosted its virtual 2021 Industry Day on November 19, 2021 to showcase its capabilities and opportunities for joint research efforts. ABF team members presented on a variety of topics, including ABF operations and capabilities, methods for collaboration, and engagement through directed funding opportunities. 

A team led by Eva Nogales, senior faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, has produced the first detailed 3D structure of human SAGA, a 20-piece molecular machine that’s crucial to life. The structure, reported in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, revealed some unexpected differences between the human and yeast versions of SAGA and could guide the development of drugs to treat diseases that arise when this complex malfunctions.

The bacterium SAR324 is unusually cosmopolitan. In the ocean’s North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, microbes tend to stay localized at different depths. But SAR324 can be found throughout the water column, from the warm, well-lit surface, to the blue-lit twilight zone, to the continuous pressure of the dark abyss, 4000 m (2.5 miles) deep. Scientists have wondered, how can SAR324 exist in so many varied environments? Now, a recent study supported by JGI and has uncovered that SAR324 encompasses four subgroups, adapted to different oceanic depths and relying on different ways of living. Read more about the hidden diversity of SAR324 on the JGI website.

At SC21, the HPCwire Editors Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences went to the Berkeley Lab team comprised of JGI and ExaBiome Project team, supported by the DOE Exascale Computing Project. The award recognized the release of MetaHipMer, an end-to-end genome assembler that supports “an unprecendented assembly of environmental microbiomes. 

“They produced fantastic scientific results this year by assembling a collection of large datasets that will enable scientists to explore and collect data in new ways,” said JGI Chief Informatics Officer Kjiersten Fagnan of the award. “We’re excited to be able to offer this capability to the JGI user community moving forward and to assemble, for the first time these large environmental microbial data sets for JGI users, which include projects looking at wildfire impacts, carbon cycling, and the microbial dynamics in freshwater lakes over a several year period.”