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Puzzling Question in Bacterial Immune System Answered

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2014Sciencebacterial enzyme, bacterial immune system, bacterial microbes face, Berkeley, berkeley lab, cas9, cas9 enzyme, crispr associated, crrna molecule, eric greene, genomic dna, jennifer doudna, martin jinek, nucleic acid, pam, pam sequences, plasmids, protospacer adjacent motif, puzzling question, rna, samuel sternberg, short dna sequence, sy redding, synthetic biology, uc, university of california

Berkeley Researchers Uncover the Key to Self-Awareness in Genome Editor

A central question has been answered regarding a protein that plays an essential role in the bacterial immune system and is fast becoming a valuable tool for genetic engineering. A team of researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have determined how the bacterial enzyme known as Cas9, guided by RNA, is able to identify and degrade foreign DNA during viral infections, as well as induce site-specific genetic changes in animal and plant cells. Through a combination of single-molecule imaging and bulk biochemical experiments, the research team has shown that the genome-editing ability of Cas9 is made possible by the presence of short DNA sequences known as “PAM,” for protospacer adjacent motif. (more…)

New Details on the Molecular Machinery of Cancer

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2013Scienceactivation, adam smith, addition of phosphate, anton arkhipov, autophosphorylation, berkeley lab, cancer, cancer therapies, cancers, cell surface protein, cellular functions, computational modeling, egf ligand, egfr, epidermal growth factor, fluorescence spectroscopy, gene, immune system, jay groves, john kuriyan, ligand induced dimerization, living cells, molecular machinery, nicholas endres, nuclear magnetic resonance, photon, post translational process, protein activation, quantitative approach, quantitative biology techniques, rahul das, receptor, receptor tyrosine kinases, single compound molecule, specific proteins, t-cell receptors, time resolved, uc, university of california

Berkeley Lab Researchers Resolve EGFR Activation Mystery

Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have provided important new details into the activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cell surface protein that has been strongly linked to a large number of cancers and is a major target of cancer therapies.

“The more we understand about EGFR and the complex molecular machinery involved in the growth and proliferation of cells, the closer we will be to developing new and more effective ways to cure and treat the many different forms of cancer,” says chemist Jay Groves, one of the leaders of this research. “Through a tour-de-force of quantitative biology techniques that included cutting edge time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in living cells, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and computational modeling, we’ve determined definitively how EGFR becomes activated through to its epidermal growth factor (EGF) ligand.” (more…)

Golden Potential for Gold Thin Films

By Guest PostApril 29, 2012Science1d chain, 2d nanoparticle, 2d sheet, berkeley lab, block, catalysis, co polymer, DNA, gold nanoparticle, joseph kao, microdomain, microtechnology, nanometer, nanoparticle, peter bai, peter ercius, plasmonic metamaterial, plasmonic technology, polymer scientist, polymer supramolecule, scalable nanomanufacturing, semiconductor nanocrystal, solvent evaporation, supramolecular nanocomposites, thin film, three dimensional array, ting xu, uc, university of california, vivian chuang, zhang jiang

Berkeley Lab Researchers Direct the Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into Device-Ready Thin films

Scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have directed the first self-assembly of nanoparticles into device-ready materials. Through a relatively easy and inexpensive technique based on blending nanoparticles with block co-polymer supramolecules, the researchers produced multiple-layers of thin films from highly ordered one-, two- and three-dimensional arrays of gold nanoparticles. Thin films such as these have potential applications for a wide range of fields, including computer memory storage, energy harvesting, energy storage, remote-sensing, catalysis, light management and the emerging new field of plasmonics.

“We’ve demonstrated a simple yet versatile supramolecular approach to control the 3-D spatial organization of nanoparticles with single particle precision over macroscopic distances in thin films,” says polymer scientist Ting Xu, who led this research. “While the thin gold films we made were wafer-sized, the technique can easily produce much larger films, and it can be used on nanoparticles of many other materials besides gold.” (more…)

A Shiny New Tool for Imaging Biomolecules

By Guest PostApril 1, 2012Sciencearrays, berkeley lab, biomolecule, cell, cell membrane, cellular signaling network, chemical signal, christopher rhodes, disease, fluorescent, foreign invader, gold bowtie nanoantennas, gold nanoantenna, gold nanoparticle, hot-spot, hsiung lin tu, immune system, intensity, jay groves, lars iversen, lynn yarris, mark schmidt, optical imaging technique, optical nanoantenna, plasmonics, protein, raman optical signal, theo lohmuller, uc, wan chen lin

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Embed Artificial Membranes with Billions of Nanoantennas for Enhanced Optical Studies*

At the heart of the immune system that protects our bodies from disease and foreign invaders is a vast and complex communications network involving millions of cells, sending and receiving chemical signals that can mean life or death. At the heart of this vast cellular signaling network are interactions between billions of proteins and other biomolecules. These interactions, in turn, are greatly influenced by the spatial patterning of signaling and receptor molecules. The ability to observe signaling spatial patterns in the immune and other cellular systems as they evolve, and to study the impact on molecular interactions and, ultimately, cellular communication, would be a critical tool in the fight against immunological and other disorders that lead to a broad range of health problems including cancer. Such a tool is now at hand. (more…)

The Brittleness of Aging Bones – More than a Loss of Bone Mass

By Guest PostSeptember 3, 2011Scienceadvanced light source, age related structural changes in human cortical bone, als, berkeley lab, biological aging, björn busse, bone strength and fracture toughness, bones, brittle, calcium, collagen molecules, concentric rings of lamellae plates, department of energy, doe, elizabeth zimmermann, eric schaible, fracturing, ha, holly barth, hrishikesh bale, human cortical or compact bone, hydroxyapatite, joel ager, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, loss of mass, macroscopic fracture testing, molecular level, nanocrystals, nanoscale, older bones fracturing, peter reichert, robert ritchie, simon tang, tamara alliston, uc, university of california, young human bone

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Show How Loss of Bone Quality Also a Major Factor*

It is a well-established fact that as we grow older our bones become more brittle and prone to fracturing. It is also well established that loss of mass is a major reason for older bones fracturing more readily than younger bones, hence medical treatments have focused on slowing down this loss. However, new research from scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) shows that at microscopic dimensions, the age-related loss of bone quality can be every bit as important as the loss of quantity in the susceptibility of bone to fracturing. (more…)

Tag Archives: uc

Puzzling Question in Bacterial Immune System Answered

New Details on the Molecular Machinery of Cancer

Golden Potential for Gold Thin Films

A Shiny New Tool for Imaging Biomolecules

The Brittleness of Aging Bones – More than a Loss of Bone Mass