What does uncovering the true authorship of plays attributed to Shakespeare have to do with identifying our genetic ancestors or classifying new life forms? All involve the comparative analysis of long sets of data and all will benefit from a unique new analytical tool developed by researchers at Berkeley Lab called “feature frequency profiles.”

Vigorous exercise may help prevent both cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, according to a pair of studies that tracked approximately 41,000 runners for more than seven years. The research, which is among the first to suggest that vigorous exercise may help prevent vision loss, offers hope for people seeking to fend off the onset of eye disease.

“Aldehyde tags” invented by Berkeley Lab scientists are used to label proteins in bacterial recombinant-DNA systems — and now in proteins that can only be expressed by mammalian recombinant-DNA systems. While some recombinant drugs like insulin are made in bacterial systems, most have to be produced by mammalian cells. Aldehyde tags direct chemical modifications to specific sites on proteins, including monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutics important in the pharmaceutical industry.

An innovative DNA microarray developed at Berkeley Lab is shedding light on what’s killing the world’s coral reefs. The tool, which catalogs the swings in microbial populations associated with disease, may help scientists learn how to preserve one of the ocean’s most important denizens.

A protein linked to the spread of several major human cancers may also hold great potential for the elimination of wrinkles and the rejuvenation of the skin. Controlling concentrations of the RHAMM protein could one day replace surgical procedures or injections with neurotoxins

Scientists have identified a cluster of events that could signal Alzheimer’s disease. In some cases, an elderly person with increased amyloid plaque in the brain is more likely to have a smaller hippocampus and poorer episodic memory.

Berkeley Lab scientists have shown that cellular senescence, the process by which biological cells stop dividing in response to stress or damage to their DNA, is a double-edged sword. While it effectively acts to prevent cancer in younger persons, it actually promotes cancer in older individuals.

A link between the immune system and the self-cleaning system by which biological cells rid themselves of obsolete or toxic parts may one day yield new weapons in the fight against tuberculosis and other deadly infectious diseases. Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered proteins residing in both systems that point to “cross-talk” between them.

Berkeley Lab scientists have analyzed the remarkable genome of a bacterium constituting the first single-species ecosystem. Desulforudis audaxviator was discovered 2.8 kilometers beneath the surface of the earth in a South African gold mine, where it exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat.

DNA repair is critical for avoiding cancer and other diseases. A molecular machine called the MRN complex finds and signals double-strand breaks and initiates their repair. Researchers have solved the structure of MRN’s core protein, called Mre11, and learned how it does its job.