March 20, 2023
Most life on Earth is based on polymers of 20 amino acids that have evolved into hundreds of thousands of different, highly specialized proteins. They catalyze reactions, form backbone and muscle and even generate movement. But is all that variety necessary? Could biology work just as well with fewer building blocks and simpler polymers? Ting…
February 14, 2023
Open Philanthropy recently announced that QB3-Berkeley faculty affiliate Irina Conboy has been recommended a grant of $3,042,600 over three years to support research led by the Conboy on the mechanisms of aging. In her previous work, Conboy has identified ten new biomarkers and a set of pathways that may potentially be involved in the repression of…
December 05, 2022
CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing technology, is poised to have a profound impact on the fields of microbiology and medicine yet again. A team led by CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and her longtime collaborator Jill Banfield has developed a clever tool to edit the genomes of bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages using a rare form…
October 20, 2022
Only a meter or two below our feet dwells a wealth of microbes whose riches remain largely unexplored. It’s a realm where bacteria, bacteria-like organisms called archaea and fungi mingle with viruses and other non-living bits of DNA or DNA — all living with, in or on one another. In that alien world, researchers have…
September 14, 2022
Teams led by researchers from UC Berkeley, the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), and Berkeley Lab have received a combined $11.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop biofuel and bioproducts from a photosynthetic micro-alga. The funding is part of $178 million in DOE awards granted to 37 projects that will develop new…
August 31, 2022
New findings in microbes called cyanobacteria present new opportunities for plant science, bioengineering and environmental protection. UC Berkeley researchers and colleagues at Michigan State University, the University of South Bohemia and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have helped reveal the most detailed picture to date of important biological “antennae.” Nature has evolved these structures to harness…
August 29, 2022
A Berkeley Lab-led research team has developed a fully recyclable and biodegradable printed circuit. The advance could divert wearable devices and other flexible electronics from landfill, and mitigate the health and environmental hazards posed by heavy metal waste. According to the United Nations, less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste gets recycled. In 2021…
June 29, 2022
Pancreatic cancer, though rare, is one of the deadliest of cancers, killing nearly 50,000 people yearly and doing so quickly, primarily because it metastasizes rapidly through the body. Barely one in 10 people survive beyond five years. But a discovery by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests a new way to slow or…