Biosciences News

Scientists at MIT and Berkeley Lab have developed a new type of catalyst that can be tuned to promote desired chemical reactions, potentially enabling the replacement of expensive and rare metals in fuel cells. Carbon is used as the primary material for electrodes in batteries and fuel cells, and the new catalyst is carbon-based, containing … Read more »

JBEI’s Blake Simmons and Kristy Nordahl helped co-author a report on the first seven years of research at the DOE’s three Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs).

Time-lapse imaging can make complicated processes easier to grasp—think of a stitched-together sequence of photos that chronicles the construction of a building. A group of scientists, led by Sylvain Costes of the Biological Systems & Engineering Division, are using a similar approach to study how cells repair DNA damage.

Using physical chemistry methods to look at biology at the nanoscale, faculty scientist Ke Xu has invented a new technology to image single molecules with unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution, enabling new ways to examine cell structures and study diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Pam Ronald, a member of the Biological Systems & Engineering Division who directs JBEI’s Grass Genetics program, led a study that identified a bacterial signaling molecule that triggers an immunity response in rice plants, enabling the plants to resist a devastating blight disease.