Biosciences News

A team of researchers from two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories has found new evidence of tangible connections between the gut and the brain. The team, led by Antoine Snijders at Berkeley Lab and Janet Jansson at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), identified lactate—a molecule produced by all species of one gut microbe—as a key memory-boosting molecular messenger. The work was published in the journal BMC Microbiome.

Richmond Sarpong, a biochemist faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, is among the newest elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 240-year-old honorary society that recognizes accomplished scholars, scientists and artists in academia, the humanities, arts, business, and government.

Berkeley Lab is part of a multi-laboratory working group that recently received DOE Office of Science funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to conduct R&D to help improve the nation’s COVID-19 testing capabilities. Three of our Biosciences Area researchers are helping to lead the Lab’s efforts.

Shrub willow Salix purpurea is a potential biofuel feedstock of interest to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Understanding the mechanisms by which they reproduce can help guide breeding efforts. However, scientists are still dissecting its sex-linked traits. For the first time, a shrub willow sex chromosome has been sequenced with sufficient resolution to discover that it shares a structure that’s also found in the mammalian Y chromosome.

Read more on the JGI website.

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division Director N. Louise Glass has announced several changes to the organization and leadership of the division, effective May 1.