While sequencing gut bacteria from people in Bangladesh, Berkeley Lab’s Jillian Banfield discovered phages, viruses that infect and reproduce inside bacteria, twice as big as any previously found in humans. She and her colleagues found the snippets of megaphage DNA in a CRISPR segment of one type of bacteria, Prevotella, that is uncommon in people eating a high-fat, low-fiber Westernized diet. Banfield and her team named the clade of megaphages “Lak phage” after the Laksam Upazila area of Bangladesh where they were found.
New Molecular Blueprint Advances Our Understanding of Photosynthesis
Researchers in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division have used a state-of-the-art cryo-transmission electron microscope to reveal the structure of a large protein complex crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into cellular energy.
Scientists Mining JGI’s Metagenomes Find Miniature Molecular Scissors
By mining JGI’s massive database of microbial genomes and metagenomes, a team led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab has identified a new family of CRISPR-associated (Cas) enzymes found in an ancient branch of the microbial tree of life. Just one-third the size of the seminal Cas9 protein – the business end of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 – the new enzymes, dubbed Cas14, are the smallest functional CRISPR system discovered to date. Owing to its compact size and single-stranded DNA cutting activity, Cas14 may improve rapid CRISPR-based diagnostic systems now under development for infectious diseases, genetic mutations, and cancer.
Jennifer Doudna Honored by American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society bestowed its highest accolade, the Medal of Honor, on Jennifer Doudna, a faculty scientist in Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB), and four others during an October 18 ceremony in Washington, D.C. The medal is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer through basic research, clinical research, or public health interventions.
Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology and of chemistry at UC Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin were honored for their invention of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, which has transformed basic cancer research and spawned new cancer therapies currently undergoing trials.
Read more from UC Berkeley News.
Kuriyan Elected to National Academy of Medicine
Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging senior faculty scientist John Kuriyan has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, which recognizes researchers who have made major contributions to the advancement of medical sciences, health care, and public health.
Kuriyan, who is also a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley and an HHMI Investigator, has been recognized for his work in understanding eukaryotic cell signaling regulation. Read more at Berkeley News.
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