Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have developed a way to spatially map gene expression data to determine a cell’s fate. The method could go far in interrogating human tissue organization and helping elucidate key aspects of development, human health and disease. Erwin Frise and Sue Celniker of the Lab’s Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division were part of the team that developed this method that speeds discovery of spatial patterns in gene networks. Read more at Berkeley Lab News Center.
Biosciences Co-Hosts STEM Career Awareness Day
Several Biosciences researchers and staff participated in the 2016 East Bay STEM Career Awareness Day on April 27 along with other neighboring East Bay-based businesses, organizations, and professionals. Together, they co-hosted nearly three hundred East Bay high school students from four school districts – Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, and Richmond – who took part in this one-day career exploration event at which they were introduced to careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The event took place at Wareham Development’s Aquatic Park Center in West Berkeley, home to the Biosciences Aquatic Park Operations Center and several Biosciences research activities.
Biosciences Area Participates in DOE’s Big Ideas Summit
On April 21 and 22, 2016, the Department of Energy (DOE) hosted the National Laboratory Big Ideas near Washington, D.C. The Summit was the third annual gathering to elicit large-scale, potentially game-changing ideas from DOE’s 17 national laboratories working collaboratively to tackle the nation’s energy and science challenges. A theme of this year’s Summit was the Presidential Mission Innovation initiative to dramatically accelerate global clean energy innovation to address climate change.
How Many Synthetic Genes Does it Take to Sustain Life?
Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created a stripped-down life form, with a minimal number of genes needed to keep it going. They hope to use it as a platform to create designer life forms, and say it’s already taught some important, and humbling, lessons about the essence of life. Berkeley Lab’s Adam Arkin, Interim Biosciences Deputy for Science, and Samuel Deutsch, DOE Joint Genome Institute, comment on the research in this NBC News story.
Biosciences Area FY16 LDRD Projects
The projects of eleven Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY2016 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. These projects cover a broad range of topics, including energy science technology applications, novel computing technologies, and mechanistic understanding of multi-scale interactions among molecules, microbes, plants, metazoans, the abiotic environment, and their feedbacks. Together, these efforts account for nearly 14% of the $25.3 million allocated. Lab-wide, 84 proposals were selected from a field of 179.
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