U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
X-ray laser helps fight sleeping sickness
An international group of scientists working at SLAC has mapped a weak spot in the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, pinpointing a promising new target for treating a disease that kills tens of thousands of people each year.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012

Environmental Science and Technology
Airborne particles smuggle pollutants to far reaches of globe
Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.

Department of Energy

Public Release: 14-Nov-2012
Traumatic brain injury patients, supercomputer simulations studied to improve helmets
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico are comparing supercomputer simulations of blast waves on the brain with clinical studies of veterans suffering from mild traumatic brain injuries to help improve helmet designs.

Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 6-Nov-2012
Global metabolomic initiative announced
Investigators at Washington University and The Scripps Research Institute have announced the launch of a "Global Metabolomic Initiative" to facilitate meta-analyses on studies of the metabolism of bacteria, yeast, plants, animals and people. Although metabolomics has existed as a discipline for only a decade, it has already provided insights into many difficult-to-treat diseases, including chronic pain. Many more are expected to fall out of the meta-analyses.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Public Release: 1-Nov-2012

Cell Reports
Berkeley Lab scientists help develop promising therapy for Huntington's disease
There's new hope in the fight against Huntington's disease. Berkeley Lab scientists have helped design a compound that suppresses symptoms of the devastating disease in mice. The compound is a synthetic antioxidant that targets mitochondria, an organelle that serves as a cell's power plant. Oxidative damage to mitochondria is implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases.

Public Release: 19-Oct-2012
Chemistry building at Brookhaven Lab named Historic Chemical Landmark
The New York Section of the American Chemical Society has designated the Chemistry Building at Brookhaven National Laboratory as an Historic Chemical Landmark for the synthesis of 18^FDG, a radiotracer that has had a revolutionary and global impact on cancer diagnosis and management and brain research.

Department of Energy Office of Science, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 16-Oct-2012

PLOS ONE
New insights into how genetic differences influence breast cancer risk from low-dose radiation
Scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have identified tissue mechanisms that may influence a woman's susceptibility or resistance to breast cancer after exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation, such as the levels used in full-body CT scans and radiotherapy.

Public Release: 10-Oct-2012

Journal of Biological Chemistry
Biologists describe details of new mechanism for molecular interactions
Scientists have discovered a new mechanism that may alter principle understandings of molecular interactions within a cell's nucleus. In four papers, the scientists describe the details of how particular proteins use a "molecular sled" to slide along DNA -- much like a train running along its tracks -- to find and interact with other proteins. The findings suggest this mechanism may be universal.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science, NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Science Foundation, and others

Public Release: 5-Oct-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Scratching the surface: Stanford engineers examine UV effects on skin mechanics
Using mechanical stress testing methods common in materials science, researchers at Stanford found that UV rays also change the way the outermost skin cells hold together and respond to strain.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 4-Oct-2012

SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics
Toward an artificial pancreas: Math modeling and diabetes control
In a paper published today in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, authors Mingzhan Huang, Jiaxu Li, Xinyu Song, and Hongjian Guo propose novel mathematical models for injection of insulin in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The models simulate injections of insulin in the manner of insulin pumps, which deliver periodic impulses in diabetes patients.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 27-Sep-2012

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures
Sandia probability maps help sniff out food contamination
Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories' National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

Department of Homeland Security

Public Release: 13-Sep-2012
Scientists use sound waves to levitate liquids, improve pharmaceuticals
Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have been using an "acoustic levitator" to find new ways to achieve containerless drug processing. Please check out the brief and striking video: http://www.anl.gov/videos/acoustic-levitation.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 12-Sep-2012
Jay Keasling wins Heinz Award
Jay Keasling, Berkeley Lab Associate Director for Biosciences and leading authority on synthetic biology who has engineered microbial "factories" to manufacture a frontline antimalarial drug and biofuel substitutes for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, has won a 2012 Heinz Award. Presented by the Heinz Family Foundation, the award carries with it a cash prize of $250,000.

Heinz Family Foundation

Public Release: 12-Sep-2012
Sandia, OurEnergyPolicy.org release 'Goals of Energy Policy' poll results
US energy policy should simultaneously pursue security of its energy supply, economic stability and reduced environmental impacts, says a national poll of energy professionals jointly prepared by Sandia National Laboratories and OurEnergyPolicy.org. The findings of the national poll, "The Goals of Energy Policy," show that the vast majority -- more than 85 percent -- of the 884 energy professionals surveyed prefer policy making that pursues all three goals at once.

Public Release: 11-Sep-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
Protein linked to therapy resistance in breast cancer
Berkeley Lab researchers have identified the FAM83A protein as a possible new oncogene and linked it to therapy resistance in breast cancer. This discovery helps explain the clinical correlation between a high expression of FAM83A and a poor prognosis for breast cancer patients, and may also provide a new target for future therapies.

US Department of Energy, Office of Science, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 10-Sep-2012

Nature Biotechnology
Expanding database enables discoveries in emerging field of metabolomics
Over the last decade, metabolomics has emerged as the newest of the "omic" sciences (following genomics and proteomics) to provide comprehensive biochemical information about cellular metabolism. This new field has revealed that many of the chemicals involved in or produced through metabolism are currently unknown, but may play vital and previously unappreciated roles in human health and disease.

California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 9-Sep-2012

Nature Materials
Nano-velcro clasps heavy metal molecules in its grips
Researchers have devised a simple, system based on nanoparticles, to detect mercury as well as others pollutants. This technology makes it possible to easily and inexpensively test for these substances in water and, more importantly, in the fish that we eat. This will be published in Nature Material on September 9, 2012.

Eni, US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 6-Sep-2012
ORNL's newly licensed neutron detector will advance human disease research
A neutron detector developed for studies focused on life science, drug discovery and materials technology has been licensed by PartTec Ltd. The Indiana-based manufacturer of radiation detection technologies is moving the technology developed at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory toward the commercial marketplace.

Public Release: 3-Sep-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Mass spec makes the clinical grade
A new mass spectrometry-based test identifies proteins from blood with as much accuracy and sensitivity as the antibody-based tests used clinically, researchers report this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition online. The head-to-head comparison using blood samples from cancer patients measured biomarkers, proteins whose presence identifies a disease or condition. The technique should be able to speed up development of protein-specific diagnostic tests and treatment.

National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy

Public Release: 30-Aug-2012

Science
Science study shows 'promiscuous' enzymes still prevalent in metabolism
Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their "sloppy" and "promiscuous" ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Physical Review E
Cooled coal emissions would clean air and lower health and climate-change costs
Refrigerating coal-plant emissions would reduce levels of dangerous chemicals that pour into the air -- including carbon dioxide by more than 90 percent -- at a cost of 25 percent efficiency, according to a simple math-driven formula designed by a team of University of Oregon physicists.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 27-Aug-2012

Fertility and Sterility
Nutrition tied to improved sperm DNA quality in older men
A new study led by Berkeley Lab scientists found that a healthy intake of micronutrients is strongly associated with improved sperm DNA quality in older men. In younger men, however, a higher intake of micronutrients didn't improve their sperm DNA.

NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Public Release: 22-Aug-2012

Nucleic Acids Research
Iowa State, Ames Lab researchers study the structure of drug resistance in tuberculosis
A research group led by Edward Yu of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory is beginning to study disease resistance in tuberculosis. The researchers started their TB studies by describing the structure of a regulator that controls the expression of a pump that removes toxins from the bacteria. The finding was recently published online by the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy/Office of Basic Energy Sciences

Public Release: 13-Aug-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Fresh water breathes fresh life into hurricanes
An analysis of a decade's worth of tropical cyclones shows that when hurricanes blow over ocean regions swamped by fresh water, the conditions can unexpectedly intensify the storm. Although the probability that hurricanes will hit such conditions is small, ranging from 10 to 23 percent, the effect is potentially large: Hurricanes can become 50 percent more intense, researchers report in a study appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation of China

Public Release: 13-Aug-2012

Journal of Clinical Investigation
New class of proteins allows breast cancer cells to evade tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Aberrant regulation of cell growth pathways is required for normal cells to become cancerous, and in many types of cancer, cell growth is driven by a group of enzymes known as receptor tyrosine kinases. In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, two groups identify a pair of related oncogenes, FAM83A and B, which allow breast cancer cells to survive TKI treatment.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, and others