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Bringing out the best in X-ray crystallography data

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Combining components of Rosetta and PHENIX, two successful software programs for creating 3-D structural models of proteins and other biomolecules, Berkeley Lab researchers have created a new method for refining those models and making the best of available experimental data.

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

Diamond imperfections pave the way to technology gold

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using ultrafast 2-D electronic spectroscopy, Berkeley Lab researchers have recorded unprecedented observations of energy moving through the atom-sized diamond impurities known as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. Their results provide information on NV centers that is important for such highly promising advanced technologies as supersensitive detections of magnetic fields and quantum computing.

Journal: Nature Physics
Funder: National Science Foundation

'Molecular Velcro' may lead to cost-effective alternatives to natural antibodies

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Taking inspiration from the human immune system, researchers at Berkeley Lab have created a new material that can be programmed to identify an endless variety of molecules. The new material resembles tiny sheets of Velcro, each just 100 nanometers across. But instead of securing your sneakers, this molecular Velcro mimics the way natural antibodies recognize viruses and toxins, and could lead to a new class of biosensors.

Journal: ACS Nano
Funder: Defense Threat Reduction Agency, US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Less toxic metabolites, more chemical product

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By preventing the build-up of toxic metabolites in engineered microbes, a dynamic regulatory system developed at JBEI can help boost production of an advanced biofuel, a therapeutic drug, or other valuable chemical products. The system has already been used to double the production in E. coli of amorphadiene, a precursor to the premier antimalarial drug artemisinin.

Journal: Nature Biotechnology
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Expanding research communities and collaborations

DOE/Joint Genome Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

From the depths of oceans, to wide swaths of forests, and rising to the troposphere, where weather changes occur, the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2014 Community Science Program portfolio seeks to parse functional information extracted from complex ecosystems to address urgent energy and environmental challenges. These massive, data-intensive undertakings require interdisciplinary approaches, many leveraging additional expertise through a new inter-DOE-Facility partnership.

Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research; NSF Long-term Ecological Research Program; NSF FSML

What is it about your face?

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers found thousands of gene enhancers -- regulatory sequences of DNA that act to turn-on or amplify the expression of a specific gene -- are involved in the development of the human face. These enhancers help explain why every human face is as unique as a fingerprint.

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

Berkeley Lab researchers get a detailed look at a DNA repair protein in action

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab researchers at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) have invented a new technique for studying the process by which certain errors in the genetic code are detected and repaired. The technique is based on a combination of hybrid nanomaterials and SAXS imaging at the ALS SIBYLS beamline.

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

Advanced light source provides a new look at vanadium dioxide

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Advanced Light Source have taken a new look at vanadium dioxide, a correlated material that could be used to make energy-efficient ultrafast electronic switches.

Journal: Nature Physics
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Copper shock: An atomic-scale stress test

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists used the powerful X-ray laser at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to create movies detailing trillionths-of-a-second changes in the arrangement of copper atoms after an extreme shock. Movies like these will help researchers create new kinds of materials and test the strength of existing ones.

Journal: Science

Weatherizing homes to uniform standard can achieve $33 billion in annual energy savings

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With winter around the corner some homeowners may be thinking about plugging all the leaks in their home to make them less drafty. Imagine if every homeowner in the country did that -- how much energy could be saved? Using physics-based modeling of the US housing stock, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found in a new study that upgrading airtightness to a uniform level could achieve as much as $33 billion in annual energy savings.

Journal: Energy and Buildings
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, California Energy Commission