Biosciences News

Mina J. Bissell, Distinguished Scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division will be awarded the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research at the annual meeting on April 1. The Award was first established in 2004 to honor individuals who have made significant fundamental contributions to cancer research, either through a single scientific discovery or a collective body of work. The AACR honors Bissell for her pioneering work, which has identified the roles of the extracellular matrix and three-dimensional architecture in programs of gene expression in tissue morphogenesis and cancer. Her research contributions are widely recognized for launching the tumor microenvironment field and for revolutionizing cell and cancer biologists’ perspective on the dominant forces in cancer.

Cryo-electron microscopy is a critical tool used to advance biochemical knowledge. Now Pavel Afonine, research scientist, and Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division Director Paul Adams have extended cryo-EM’s impact further by developing a new computational algorithm that was instrumental in constructing a 3-D atomic-scale model of bacteriophage P22 for the first time. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

One day, patients may be able to monitor their body’s response to cancer therapy just by having their blood drawn. A new study, led by Amy Herr, faculty engineer in the Biological Systems & Engineering Division, has taken an important step in that direction by measuring a panel of cancer proteins in rare, individual tumor cells that float in the blood. Read more in Berkeley News.

The Biosciences Area Twitter account @LBNLBioSci has reached 500 followers this month! Follow @LBNLBioSci to stay up to date about the latest Biosciences Area scientific news, and to view our Twitter campaigns visit our Storify page.

The discovery of a chemical compound that halts the production of a small set of proteins while leaving general protein production untouched suggests a new drug search strategy: Find compounds that target undesired proteins before they are even made. In a paper appearing in the journal PLOS Biology, described the work of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. Faculty scientist Jamie Cate, Structural Biology Department Head in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, was a senior author of this study. Read the full story in Berkeley News.