Eva Nogales’ life and research work was highlighted in the PNAS Profile of August 12. The profile, written in recognition of her election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015, accompanied the PNAS Inaugural Article of Nogales, a faculty structural biologist in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division. In this article, titled “Near-atomic cryo-EM structure of PRC1 bound to the microtubule,” she uses cryo-EM to visualize, at a near-atomic level, how an essential component of the mitotic spindle maintains critical contact with microtubules to aid cell division.
The Golden Time to Do Hybrid Methodologies
The work of Eva Nogales and Jennifer Doudna, Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division faculty scientists, were highlighted in the August 18 Nature technology feature article, “Let the structural symphony begin,” a discussion of the current “golden time to do hybrid methodologies,” according to Nogales. Structural biologists, such as Nogales who was interviewed for this article, now have “the tools to tackle important questions about cells’ molecular machinery that would have been impossible to answer just a few years ago.” Combining these imaging methods – selecting from an impressive suite of different imaging techniques – is an increasingly popular approach in the field of structural biology, in which X-ray crystallography has been the premier method for more than a century. According to the article, while “the most powerful insights come from (these) hybrid methodologies that integrate images from several different tools, ” it also has its drawbacks. Read the full article here.
New Technologies Fuel Cryo-EM’s Renaissance
In a pair of breakthrough Nature papers published recently, researchers in Eva Nogales’ Lab at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab (Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division) mapped two important protein functions in unprecedented detail: the role of TFIID, effectively improving our understanding of how our molecular machinery identifies the right DNA to copy; and how proteins unzip double-stranded DNA, which gives us insights into the first-key steps in gene activation.
These papers are representative of the renaissance currently under way in the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) field—driven primarily by the rise of cutting-edge electron detector cameras, sophisticated image processing software and access to NERSC supercomputing resources. Read the full story, written by Linda Vu of NERSC.
Scientists Image First Steps in DNA Transcription
Working at temperatures near absolute zero, scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have captured images of proteins at work in the early steps of DNA transcription. Eva Nogales, a senior faculty scientist at in the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division, UC Berkeley professor of biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, led the new study, published today in the journal Nature.
This latest research comes seven weeks after Nogales unveiled an earlier milestone using cryo-EM technology to image details of transcription factor TFIID in gene expression. Read the full UC Berkeley press release on the newest Nature paper.
Biosciences Scientists Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Four Berkeley Lab scientists have been elected to the 2016 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 236-year-old honorary society that recognizes accomplished scholars, scientists and artists in academia, the humanities, arts, business and government. They include Biosciences’ biophysicist senior scientist Robert Glaeser and biophysicist senior faculty Eva Nogales of the Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division; and Jay Keasling, Biosciences associate laboratory director and CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute. Together with the Lab’s Nuclear Science Division Director Barbara Jacak, they are among 213 new members announced by the academy today (April 20).
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing—and opportunities available to—the nation and the world. Members contribute to academy publications and studies of science, engineering, and technology policy; global security and international affairs; the humanities, arts, and education; and American institutions and the public good. The new academy members will be inducted at an October 8 ceremony in Cambridge, Mass. Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center.
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