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X-rays offer first detailed look at hotspots for calcium-related disease

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using intense X-rays from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, researchers have determined the detailed structure of a key part of the ryanodine receptor, a protein associated with calcium-related disease. Their results, which combine data from SSRL and the Canadian Light Source, pinpoint the locations of more than 50 mutations that cluster in disease "hotspots" along the receptor and offer insights into how the mutations might cause the receptor to malfunction.

Journal: Nature

Algae for biofuels: Moving from promise to reality, but how fast?

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new report from the Energy Biosciences Institute in Berkeley projects that development of cost-competitive algae biofuel production will require much more long-term research, development and demonstration. In the meantime, several non-fuel applications of algae could serve to advance the nascent industry.

Funder: Energy Biosciences Institute, BP

Zebrafish yield clues to how we process visual information

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To a hungry fish on the prowl, the split-second neural processing required to see and gobble up prey is a matter of survival. To scientists, it's a window into how our brain coordinates eye motions that enable us make our way in a world full of danger and opportunity. This process is now better understood thanks to a team of scientists that imaged the activity of individual neurons in zebrafish.

Journal: Science

A wiki for the biofuels research community

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute have created an on-line wiki-based technoeconomic model that should help accelerate the development of clean, green biofuels that can compete with gasoline. The model enables researchers to pursue the most promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Insulin-creating cell research may lead to better diabetes treatment

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Beta cells, which make insulin in the human body, do not replicate after the age of 30, indicating that clinicians may be closer to better treating diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a loss of beta cells by auto-immunity while type 2 is due to a relative insufficiency of beta cells. Whether beta cells replicate after birth has remained an open issue, and is critically important for designing therapies for diabetes.

Journal: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

6 new isotopes of the superheavy elements discovered

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers has used the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create six new isotopes of the superheavy elements, reaching in an unbroken chain of decays from element 114 down to rutherfordium. The discovery is a major step toward understanding how to explore the long-sought Island of Stability, which is thought to lie in the vicinity of element 114 -- and possibly beyond.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: National Nuclear Security Administration, US Department of Energy's Office of Science

Berkeley Lab scientists open electrical link to living cells

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab scientists have designed an electrical link to living cells engineered to shuttle electrons across a cell's membrane. This direct channel could yield cells that can read and respond to electronic signals, or efficiently transfer sunlight into electricity.

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

Creating order from chaos at the LCLS

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

In the world of physics, where everything tends toward disorder, researchers working on the Linac Coherent Light Source are seeking perfect order. Many experiments at the pioneering machine will require each molecule in a puff of gas to align with all of the others, creating a uniform field of molecules on which tests can be conducted.

Unsung hero: Berkeley researchers produce high-res model of Ndc80 in action

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Berkeley Lab scientists used cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction to create a subnanometer resolution image of Ndc80, a protein complex that helps prevent chromosomal distribution mistakes during mitosis that can lead to birth defects, cancer and other disorders.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Berkeley Lab awarded $12.5 million to lead a US-China clean energy research center

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

The US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been chosen to lead a consortium for a US-China Clean Energy Research Center on Building Energy Efficiency. The center will develop technologies for low-energy residential and commercial buildings, as well as work on commercialization of those technologies and research how human behavior affects building energy use. The Clean Energy Resource Center will receive $12.5 million over five years.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy