Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini. This rotation, called “CAMo,” for coherent angular motion, is necessary for the cells to form spheres. Otherwise, cells undergo random motion, leading to loss of structure and malignancy.

Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) researchers have developed computer assisted design (CAD)-type tools for engineering RNA components to control genetic expression in microbes. This holds enormous potential for microbial-based production of advanced biofuels, biodegradable plastics, therapeutic drugs and a host of other goods now derived from petrochemicals.

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute have developed the first genome-scale model for predicting the functions of genes and gene networks in a grass species. Called RiceNet, this systems-level model of rice gene interactions should help speed the development of new crops for the production of advanced biofuels, as well as help boost the production and improve the quality of one of the world’s most important food staples.

Lessons to be learned from nature could lead to the development of an artificial version of photosynthesis that would provide us with an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible energy source, says Berkeley Lab photosynthesis authority Graham Fleming and three international colleagues.

Berkeley Lab researchers, using a combination of cryo-electron microscopy and 3-D image reconstruction, determined the structure of Cascade, a protein complex that plays a key role in the microbial immune system by detecting and inactivating the nucleic acid of invading pathogens. Microbial immune systems in the human microbiome play a critical role in preserving the health of their human host.

An essential relationship among leading genes and proteins that control the health of the skin has been revealed by a multinational research team. The protein p63 is the “master regulator” for skin’s uppermost layers, the epidermis. It does much of its work by directly controlling the chromatin-remodeling protein Satb1, discovered at Berkeley Lab over a decade ago and already known for critical roles in the immune system and aggressive breast cancer.

Berkeley Lab has opened the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU), a state-of-the art facility, designed to help expedite the commercialization of advanced next-generation biofuels by providing industry-scale test beds for discoveries made in the laboratory.

One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and two decades after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the scientific lesson is clear – microbes matter! Despite vast differences in the ecosystems and circumstances of these two worst oil spills in U.S. history, oil-degrading microorganisms played a significant role in reducing the overall environmental impact of both spills, a Berkley Lab scientist reports.

When people ask Greg Alushin what he did this summer, he could tell them he went on a yacht cruise with a Swedish countess on Lake Constance in Bavaria. But he actually did something even more exciting than that—Alushin was one of a select group of young researchers chosen to attend a week of lectures and lunches with Nobel laureates.

Berkeley Lab and German researchers have developed the world’s first three-dimensional plasmon rulers, capable of measuring nanometer-scale spatial changes in macromolecular systems. These 3D plasmon rulers could provide unprecedented details on such critical dynamic events in biology as the interaction of DNA with enzymes, the folding of proteins, the motion of peptides or the vibrations of cell membranes.