Biosciences News

Biosciences researchers have developed a novel nanoscale membrane embedded with molecular wires that simultaneously chemically isolates, yet electrochemically couples, a microbial and an inorganic catalyst on the shortest possible length scale. This new modular architecture, described in a paper  recently published in Nature Communications, opens up a large design space for building scalable biohybrid electrochemical systems for a variety of applications.

The Berkeley Lab community mourns the loss of John Tompkins Lyman, who died May 30 at age 86. He was a key member of the pioneering radiation biophysics group led by Cornelius Tobias and John Lawrence, studying how the beams from the cyclotrons built by John’s brother Ernest could be applied in biology and medicine.

Karen Davies, a staff scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, is one of six Berkeley Lab scientists selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science to receive significant funding through its Early Career Research Program. The scientists are each expected to receive grants of up to $2.5 million over five years to cover year-round salary plus research expenses. Davies’ focus is on protein structure and bioenergetics, which includes the study of the flow of energy in living organisms. Her award is for “Structure of the Cyanobacterial NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase Complex (NDH-1) and Its Role in Cyclic Electron Flow and Carbon Dioxide Hydration,” selected by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

Biosciences’ Cynthia McMurray was recently quoted in a Nature Outlook article on the gaps in our understanding of the biology that underlies Huntington’s disease. In the piece, McMurray, a senior scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), discusses possible mechanisms that give rise to the abnormal expansion of the DNA sequence cytosine, adenine, and guanine (CAG), potential functions of the huntingtin protein in cells, and the theory that chains of glutamine (encoded by CAG) make huntingtin extra sticky.

View the article as a PDF.

Breakthrough discovery at the Joint BioEnergy Institute could greatly accelerate the pace of science

In the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology, in which organisms can be engineered to do things like decompose plastic and manufacture biofuels and medicines, production of custom DNA sequences is a fundamental tool for scientific discovery. Yet the process of DNA synthesis, which has remained virtually unchanged for more than 40 years, can be slow and unreliable.

Now in what could address a critical bottleneck in biology research, researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), announced they have pioneered a new way to synthesize DNA sequences through a creative use of enzymes that promises to be faster, cheaper, and more accurate. The discovery, led by JBEI graduate students Sebastian Palluk and Daniel Arlow, was published in Nature Biotechnology in a paper titled “De novo DNA Synthesis Using Polymerase-Nucleotide Conjugates.” Read the Berkeley Lab News Center feature story.