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Scientists create new way to study T cell signaling

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory created unique synthetic membranes that, for the first time ever, enabled them to directly control signaling activity in living T cells from the immune system. By going inside a living cell and physically moving its T cell signaling molecules, they showed that the "bull's eye" of an immunological synapse, long thought to amplify T cell signalling, actually works to extinguish the signal.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Astrophysicists quash alternative theory of star formation

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Through a series of theoretical calculations and supercomputer simulations, astrophysicists have determined that new stars form by gravitational collapse rather than the widely held belief that they come from the buildup of unbound gas.

Journal: Nature

Lasers help scientists delve into understanding

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By shooting lasers at an RNA polymerase (RNAP) and a strand of DNA, scientists have learned a critical component of how a complex protein develops.

Journal: Molecular Cell

Protein behavior may lead to better treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By learning how and why a protein occasionally folds incorrectly, researchers may be able to better treat victims of Alzheimer's, mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Biological tubes to serve as miniature drug capsules

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

By mixing two common cell ingredients, scientists have assembled tiny hollow tubes whose ends can be open or closed, giving them great potential to serve as drug capsules thousands of times thinner than a human hair, but still 10 times wider than a gene.

Discovering the first steps in transcription-coupled repair

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have elucidated the first steps of transcription-coupled repair (TCR), a critical but still mysterious mechanism of DNA repair. When genetic information is being transcribed from DNA to RNA, TCR detects obstructions and repairs damage. But when TCR itself fails, the results can be lethal to cells and the organism. In humans, failure of TCR is the cause of Cockayne Syndrome, an extreme form of accelerated aging that is inevitably fatal early in life.

Journal: Molecular Cell
Funder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy/Office of Biological and Environmental Research

Research unveils new, reliable approach to drug delivery for cancer patients

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Prostate, breast and other cancer patients may be offered a new, stauncher targeted drug delivery system to treat their diseases in the next decade.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Sunny future for nanocrystal solar cells

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed the first ultra-thin solar cells comprised entirely of inorganic nanocrystals and spin-cast from solution. These dual nanocrystal solar cells are as cheap and easy to make as solar cells made from organic polymers and offer the added advantage of being stable in air because they contain no organic materials.

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

New tooth enamel dating technique could help identify disaster victims

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s is providing forensic scientists with a more precise way to determine a person's age at the time of death. The method could help in the identification of victims of Hurricane Katrina and other large-scale disasters.

Journal: Nature
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Goran Gustafsson Foundation, Foundation for Strategic Research, Swedish Cancer Society, Tobias Foundation, Swedish Research Council, Human Frontiers Science Program, National Institutes of Health, Karolinska Institute

Closing in on quantum chemistry

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers in the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have simulated the process by which a quantum computer could calculate to high precision an important basic property of two small molecules. Simulated quantum calculations of the ground-state energies of water (H2O) and lithium hydride (LiH) are the first of this kind ever done for specific molecules.

Journal: Science