Biosciences News

Computer code co-developed by a scientist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and embraced by the global science community over two decades has been hailed by Nature as one of “ten computer codes that transformed science.”

A multidisciplinary Berkeley Lab team led by the Joint Bioenergy Institute’s Corinne Scown and the Molecular Foundry’s Brett Helms, has been working for several years to develop a game-changing plastic that, unlike traditional plastics, can be recycled indefinitely and is not made from petroleum. Scown and Helms spoke with Berkeley Lab on the inspiration for this plastic, shortfalls in our current recycling systems, and how this ambitious project is enabled by a diverse combination of scientific expertise.

On May 25, Berkeley Lab and Biosciences Area leadership officially welcomed the EcoPOD to its home at Potter Street in West Berkeley. The Lab’s Deputy Director for Research Horst Simon and Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences Mary Maxon opened the doors of the EcoPOD after Maxon cut the ceremonial ribbon.

The JGI’s Ben Cole is one of five Berkeley Lab scientists selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive funding through the Early Career Research Program (ECRP). Under the program, researchers based at DOE national laboratories will receive $500,000 per year, for five years, to cover salary and research expenses.

His award is for a project that will employ sequencing and molecular profiling techniques to examine the genes and gene-regulating processes underlying how individual cells in two prominent bioenergy crops – sorghum and switchgrass – respond to drought and nutrient limitation.

Current methods to decontaminate PPE are successful at eradicating the virus but compromise the PPE material, ultimately increasing the wearer’s potential exposure to pathogens. But scientists at the Berkeley Lab, in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) School of Medicine, have confirmed that a new dry-sanitizing device may provide a safe and reliable solution that doesn’t alter the integrity of the PPE material.