Biosciences News

Curved beta sheets are important for the architecture of protein cavities, such as enzyme active sites and ligand-binding pockets. Beginning by analyzing classic protein formations and running folding simulations, University of Washington (UW) researchers under the leadership of David Baker designed six protein folds inspired by naturally occurring protein superfamilies. A research report published in the January 13 issue of Science describes how a multi-institutional team of scientists compared the predicted models to physical structures of these designed proteins.

Thanks to the Energy Department’s Small Business Voucher pilot, bioenergy startup Mango Materials is testing new processes of producing renewable plastics that are biodegradable and petroleum-free. Last fall, Mango Materials received a $200,000 voucher to work with Berkeley Lab. Through this partnership, the company gets access to Berkeley’s Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU). Read more on Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy website.

In honor of National Women’s History Month, Berkeley Lab, in this article, looked back at how the Lab’s Women Scientists & Engineers Council (WSEC) got started and what issues it is currently working on. The WSEC is a program of the Lab’s Diversity and Inclusion Office and was founded in 2008 by what longtime members like to call the “founding mothers”—Natalie Roe of the Physics Division, Nancy Brown of the Energy Technologies Area, and Cecilia Aragon, formerly of the Computational Research Division.

At the moment, WSEC board members from Biosciences include Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division’s Astrid Terry and Lauren Lui; Susan Tsutakawa of the Molecular Biophysics & Integrative Bioimaging Division currently serves as the committee chair.

Biosciences researchers collaborated with a team at the Salk Institute that developed a computational algorithm that integrates two different data types to make locating key regions within the genome more precise and accurate than other tools. The team’s method, recently described in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help researchers conduct vastly more targeted searches for disease-causing genetic variants in the human genome, such as ones that promote cancer or cause metabolic disorders. Joseph Ecker, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of Salk’s Genomic Analysis Laboratory, was senior author of the study. Diane Dickel, Axel Visel and Len Pennacchio of the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division, were co-authors, along with other researchers at the Salk Institute, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco. Read more about the study in the Salk Institute press release.

As Cyclotron Road, a program launched as a pilot by Berkeley Lab in 2014, continues to hits its stride, Berkeley Lab scientists are also benefiting from this success. In this article Todd Pray, ABPDU’s Program Head, comments on how the collaboration with Visolis has been mutually beneficial. Read more on the Berkeley Lab Newscenter.