Biosciences News

Scientists have determined the structure of a unique enzyme, produced by a species of methane-eating bacteria, that converts the greenhouse gas into methanol – a highly versatile liquid fuel and industrial product ingredient.

Their new study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is the first to report the structure of the enzyme, called soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO), at room temperature in both its reduced and oxidized forms. This detailed structural information will help researchers design efficient catalysts for industrial methane to methanol conversion processes.

A new approach to modifying microbes’ metabolic processes will speed up production of innovative bio-based fuels, materials, and chemicals

Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have achieved unprecedented success in modifying a microbe to efficiently produce a compound of interest using a computational model and CRISPR-based gene editing.

Microorganisms play key roles in regulating global nutrient cycles but only a small fraction has been identified and an even smaller number has been successfully cultured in a lab for study. In Nature Biotechnology, the known diversity of bacteria and archaea has now expanded by 44% through a publicly available collection of more than 52,000 microbial genomes from environmental samples. Of that number, 70% of the novel genome sequences were previously unknown, not yet cultured in the lab. The work results from a JGI-led collaboration involving more than 200 scientists around the world, KBase and NERSC. Read more about the genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes on the JGI website.

This spring, Mina Bissell, distinguished senior scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division, was awarded the 2020 Canada Gairdner International Award for Biomedical Research. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Gairdner Foundation held their annual Laureate Lectures and Gala Celebration—normally hosted in Toronto, Ontario, Canada—virtually this year. Bissell presented her talk, entitled “Why Don’t We Get More Cancer?”, about a signaling pathway she and her research group discovered that doesn’t get turned off in cancer and leads to uncontrolled growth. She received her medal surrounded by family at home in Berkeley, and spoke about the power of empathy.

Using Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) beamline 5.0.1, researchers from Gilead Sciences investigated a promising small-molecule drug, GS‑6207, that they developed to inhibit replication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).