Biosciences News

JBEI’s Post-Doctoral Researcher Sarah Richardson (Biological Systems and Engineering Division) teamed up with Team Escamilla at Tumble to record a science podcast for children ages 8 – 12, created to be enjoyed by the entire family. In this podcast episode Richardson explains how she’s trying to convince bacteria to make the things we need, such as biofuels. To listen click here. To learn more about Sarah’s research area and her outreach work click here.

The CRISPR/Cas9 bacterial genomic editing system identifies and cleaves complementary target sequences in foreign DNA. CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)–associated (Cas) protein Cas9 begins its work by RNA-guided DNA unwinding to form an RNA-DNA hybrid and displacing a DNA strand inside the protein. Upon binding, Cas9 reorganizes into an R-loop complex that is necessary for it to perform its function. A recent article published in Science describes work done to uncover the structural basis of Cas9’s function.

Scientists have for the first time reengineered a building block of a geometric nanocompartment that occurs naturally in bacteria. The new design provides an entirely new functionality that greatly expands the potential for these compartments to serve as custom-made chemical factories. The work was led by Cheryl Kerfeld, who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, UC Berkeley and the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University. Markus Sutter, a senior research associate in Kerfeld’s group at Berkeley Lab, collected the X-ray diffraction data used in this study in the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology at the Advanced Light Source. Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center.

Susan Celniker, Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division, has been honored as the recipient of the 2016 George W. Beadle Award for her outstanding contributions to the Drosophila community, in both research and service. This award was established by the Genetics Society of America (GSA) in 1999 to honor Beadle (1903–1989) who served as the President of GSA in 1946 and was a respected academic, administrator, and public servant. Celniker will be presented with this award at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), July 13–17, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. Read more on GSA’s blog, Genes to Genomes.

Faculty biochemist Jennifer Doudna and Biosciences Area Associate Laboratory Director Jay Keasling attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, to bring their unique perspectives to world leaders. Both researchers were named to Al Aribya’s “45 top scientists at Davos you should know about” list.