To better understand the cause of high counts of potentially pathogenic fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in the watersheds of the Mahaulepu Valley and Waikomo Stream in southeast Kauai, the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) commissioned a study by Berkeley Lab microbial ecologists Gary Andersen and Eric Dubinsky. The duo is frequently invited to lead microbial water assessment projects thanks to their expertise and the PhyloChip, a credit card-sized microbial detection technology invented by Andersen and others at Berkeley Lab.
Screening for Disease or Toxins in a Drop of Blood
A Berkeley Lab spin-out, Newomics is creating blood-based assays for diabetes diagnosis and management, and for the monitoring of environmental toxins, among other health care applications. The core technology, a multi-nozzle emitter array (MEA) for mass spectrometry, was developed by Newomics founder and president Daojing Wang, a guest scientist in Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE), while he was in the Lab’s Life Sciences Division (now part of the Biosciences Area). Collaborators on the emitter technology included Pan Mao, formerly in Life Sciences, and Peidong Yang in the Materials Sciences Division. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.
New Partnership for ABPDU through DOE’s Small Business Voucher Pilot
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today 38 new National Laboratory collaborations with small businesses through its Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot. In this third round the following National Laboratories are included: Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory.
Berkeley Lab will collaborate with four small businesses. One of them is Kalion Inc. based in Milton, Massachusetts who will use the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Demonstration Unit’s capabilities. ABPDU and Kalion’s goal is to reach full manufacturing-scale production of glucaric acid and glucuronic acid by creating a manufacturing-ready production strain and then scaling up that strain to generate an appropriate process. The availability of such a process will expand the food, pharma, and polymer applications requiring a purity of more than 99 percent. Read more in the Berkeley Lab Newscenter.
ABPDU Partners with Small Businesses in DOE Pilot
Through the second round of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Vouchers Pilot, eight small businesses have been awarded vouchers, totaling $1.1 million, to work with Berkeley Lab to bring their next-generation clean energy to the marketplace faster. The vouchers pay for expertise and use of facilities that help small businesses advance their technologies toward commercialization. Several Biosciences partnerships were established: Mango Materials and Zymochem bioenergy projects were awarded vouchers to work with the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU). Also, a Heliobiosys project will be performed using the capabilities of both the ABPDU and Sandia National Laboratories. The Lab was chosen by the DOE as one of five national laboratories to lead the pilot and was named a lead lab in the Advanced Manufacturing, Fuel Cells, Geothermal and Vehicle technology areas.
Got Plaque? Berkeley Lab Tech Provides Measure of Artery Health
What if checking the state of your arterial health were as simple as monitoring your blood pressure? New technology developed by Jonathan Maltz, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging division, could make this a reality. Maltz came up with the idea of using sensors to detect the changes in the pulse pressure as blood flows through the brachial artery, a major vessel in the upper arm. Previous studies have shown a strong correlation between the health of brachial and coronary arteries. With initial funding from a Berkeley Lab Innovation Grant, Maltz developed an advanced prototype called the Engevity Cuff, which looks and feels much like a blood pressure monitor. He worked with UC San Francisco (UCSF) chief cardiologist Jeffrey Olgin and his team, who are conducting a major heart health study, to test the device on real patients. Last fall, startup company Lexington Biosciences licensed the technology to help further refine the device and bring it to the medical market.
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