Biosciences News

A research team led by Jay Keasling, Senior Faculty Scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering and CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals.

After decades of effort, scientists have revealed atomic-scale details of the water splitting step of photosynthesis, the chemical process that generates the air we breathe. The latest work adds to our understanding of photosynthesis and will aid the development of fully renewable alternative energy sources.

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and their collaborators developed a machine learning technique to discover obesity-related mixed chemical exposure patterns associated with environmental health risk in the general U.S. population. To assess this, they used indicators like body mass index and waist circumference.

In Nature Plants, the JGI helped drive the discovery into the role sphagnum’s sex chromosomes play in carbon sequestration.

Scientists in the Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab are answering key questions about emerging technologies with technoeconomic analysis, a data-driven way to predict the best routes to decarbonization. Technoeconomic analysis uses computer models to evaluate the cost implications and potential environmental impacts of emerging technologies. This type of predictive analysis can be used to support decision-making by researchers, industry stakeholders, regulators, and policy-makers.