Biosciences News

Graham Fleming, chemist senior faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging, led the creation of the first computational model that simulates the light-harvesting activity of the thousands of antenna proteins that would be interacting in the chloroplast of an actual leaf. The results from this model point the way to improving the yields of food and fuel crops, and developing artificial photosynthesis technologies. Read more at Berkeley Lab News Center.

JBEI researchers Seema Singh and Blake Simmons of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division led the development of a “high-gravity” one-pot process for producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass that gives unprecedented yields while minimizing water use and waste disposal. “High gravity” means high biomass loading – the higher the biomass loading, the lower the costs for converting it to fuels. Read more at Berkeley Lab News Center.

To tackle what many consider the next frontier in biofuels research Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) recently joined forces. The focus of their collaboration? Lignin, a glue-like compound in the cell wall of most living plants that gives them their sturdiness.

With two new studies already complete, the two Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Research Centers are finding ways to convert lignin from an undesirable byproduct into a starting material for advanced biofuels and other lucrative chemicals. Read more at the GLBRC website.

The potential of modular design for brand new proteins that do not yet exist in the natural world are the latest in a recent series of developments toward custom-designing proteins. Scientists with the University of Washington used the Berkeley Lab Advanced Light Source (ALS) for some of their research. They collaborated with Susan Tsutakawa , Greg Hura, and Kathryn Burnett, of the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, who work at the ALS beamline SIBYLS where some crystallography studies of repeat protein molecule structures took place.

Nature Methods recognized the technology for “its newfound ability to determine challenging protein and protein-complex structures at high resolution.” In the journal, the Lab’s Eva Nogales and Robert Glaeser comment on cryo-EM and technological advancements that provide near-atomic resolutions of protein structures without the need for crystallization. The announcement has links to the Nogales and Glaeser Commentaries.