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Researchers ID new mechanism for keeping DNA protein in line

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Electrostatic forces known as phosphate steering help guide the actions of an enzyme called FEN1 that is critical in DNA replication and repair, finds a new study led by Berkeley Lab researchers. The findings help explain how FEN1 distinguishes which strands of DNA to target, revealing key details about a vital process in healthy cells as well as providing new directions for cancer treatment research.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, NIH/National Cancer Institute, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

What's on your skin? Archaea, that's what

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

It turns out your skin is crawling with single-celled microorganisms -- and they're not just bacteria. A study by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Medical University of Graz has found that the skin microbiome also contains archaea, a type of extreme-loving microbe, and that the amount of it varies with age.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: Department of Energy, Bavaria-California Technology Center, University of Regensburg, BioTechMed-Graz

Yi Cui named Blavatnik National Laureate

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Pioneering nanoscientist Yi Cui, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford University and of photon science at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has been named a 2017 Blavatnik National Laureate. The $250,000 award recognizes the most promising researchers age 42 and younger at top US academic and research institutions.

Could this strategy bring high-speed communications to the deep sea?

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new strategy for sending acoustic waves through water could potentially open up the world of high-speed communications to divers, marine research vessels, remote ocean monitors, deep sea robots, and submarines. By taking advantage of the dynamic rotation generated as the acoustic wave travels, also known as its orbital angular momentum, Berkeley Lab researchers were able to pack more channels onto a single frequency, effectively increasing the amount of information capable of being transmitted.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: UC Berkeley Graduate Student Fellowship, UC Berkeley Ernest Kuh Chair Endowment, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Microbe mystery solved: What happened to the Deepwater Horizon oil plume

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven't agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now a research team at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Energy Biosciences Institute

2-D material's traits could send electronics R&D spinning in new directions

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers created an atomically thin material at Berkeley Lab and used X-rays to measure its exotic and durable properties that make it a promising candidate for a budding branch of electronics known as 'spintronics.'

Journal: Nature Physics

New class of 'soft' semiconductors could transform HD displays

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research by Berkeley Lab scientists could help usher in a new generation of high-definition displays, optoelectronic devices, photodetectors, and more. They have shown that a class of 'soft' semiconductors can be used to emit multiple, bright colors from a single nanowire at resolutions as small as 500 nanometers. The work could challenge quantum dot displays that rely upon traditional semiconductor nanocrystals to emit light.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

How a single chemical bond balances cells between life and death

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

With SLAC's X-ray laser and synchrotron, scientists measured exactly how much energy goes into keeping a crucial chemical bond from triggering a death spiral for cells.

A single electron's tiny leap sets off 'molecular sunscreen' response

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

In experiments at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists were able to see the first step of a process that protects a DNA building block called thymine from sun damage: When it's hit with ultraviolet light, a single electron jumps into a slightly higher orbit around the nucleus of a single oxygen atom.

Study sheds light on how bacterial organelles assemble

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Michigan State University are providing the clearest view yet of an intact bacterial microcompartment, revealing at atomic-level resolution the structure and assembly of the organelle's protein shell. This work could benefit research in bioenergy and pathogenesis, and it could lead to new methods of bioengineering bacteria for beneficial purposes.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health