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biosci.lbl.gov
Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab
@biosci.lbl.gov
620 followers 110 following 230 posts
Official account of the Biosciences Area of @BerkeleyLab
Solving challenges in energy, environment, health, and biomanufacturing. Re-post ≠ Endorsement
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biosci.lbl.gov
🚀 Big news for California’s #bioeconomy! BEAM Circular has acquired a state-of-the-art, 130-liter gas fermentation pilot system — a major milestone in building the California Bioeconomy Innovation Campus in Stanislaus County. #ABPDU @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

👉 www.beamcircular.org/news-updates...
BEAM Circular Acquires State-of-the-Art Gas Fermentation Pilot System To Anchor California Bioeconomy Innovation Campus — BEAM Circular
BEAM Circular Acquires State-of-the-Art Gas Fermentation Pilot System To Anchor California Bioeconomy Innovation Campus
www.beamcircular.org
January 16, 2026 at 10:22 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Kudos to #BioEGSB senior faculty scientist Adam Arkin on this impactful work!
berkeleyengineer.bsky.social UC Berkeley Engineering @berkeleyengineer.bsky.social · 6d
A team of scientists led by UC Berkeley is working on a system that uses probiotics, beneficial bacteria within our bodies, and prebiotics, the nutrients that support these good bacteria, to combat lung pathogens.
Using the microbiome to combat lung pathogens - Berkeley Engineering
Novel approach offers a way to stop deadly infections without using antibiotics
bit.ly
January 14, 2026 at 7:13 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Computational and AI methods for structural biology prediction fall short in the face of proteins that morph as part of their function. A team of researchers at Duke University and Berkeley Lab defined the problem and devised statistical techniques to improve the models’ accuracy. go.lbl.gov/CASP16
DoS visualizations of predicted (AlphaFold, top) and experimental (NMR, bottom) interdomain orientation distributions for CASP16 target T1200 Staphylococcus aureus Protein A. (Credit: Allen McBride/Duke University)
January 13, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Biosciences Area at Berkeley Lab
axelvisel.bsky.social
Now out: The new ENCODE registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements (🐭/👶)

Major consortium effort, led by @moorejille.bsky.social - stay tuned for her "meme-torial"

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@berkeleylab.lbl.gov @biosci.lbl.gov
AI slop depiction of regulatory landscapes, in a style that would give Caspar David Friedrich a cluster headache. Colorful cones erupt from the fog and launch rockets (presumably transcription factors) toward a suspiciously three-stranded DNA helix of unclear left- or right-handedness. Lone, brooding figures stare into the chromatin mist waiting for meaning to emerge, while Romantic ruins and cosmic arcs hint vaguely at long-range regulation, peak calling, and other things that ChatGPT definitely did not understand right.
January 7, 2026 at 9:45 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
A new custom-designed small-batch chemical reactor designed by researchers at the ABPDU, JBEI, and the Engineering Division’s Engineering Small Project Support team will help bridge a critical gap in testing new chemistry processes before scaling them up.

biosciences.lbl.gov/2025/12/11/c...
Mechanical Engineer Nick Wenner, a member of the Engineering Small Project Support (EsPS) team, demonstrates the method for sealing each well in the small high-throughput pressure reactor he designed and built for use in specialized experiments. (Credit: Thor Swift, Berkeley Lab)
January 7, 2026 at 6:28 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
2025 Berkeley Lab Early Career Director's Award recipient Kateryna Zhalnina discusses her career path and what she's learned about how to be a successful researcher: research.lbl.gov/2025/12/10/e...

View her top 4 tips 👇

#BioEGSB
January 6, 2026 at 9:04 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Happy holidays to those who celebrate and best wishes for a peaceful close to 2025! We'll be back in the new year with more exciting science solutions that @berkeleylab.lbl.gov is bringing to the world.
December 23, 2025 at 11:03 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Revisit one of @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's Big Science Stories of 2025: a new "pee-cycling" process using a modified yeast to produce a material from urine that can used to repair bones and teeth. go.lbl.gov/osteoyeast

#BioEGSB| @jgi.doe.gov | @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov
Headshot of Yasuo Yoshikuni with a quote from him on a background image from the study of green and read fluorescent shapes, "The serendipitous part is this yeast already had similar molecular mechanisms. Just mild tweaking was sufficient to convert the yeast into a cell factory for hydroxyapatite."
December 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Congrats to #BioEGSB affiliate scientist Ben Rubin and team on publication of @therubinlab.bsky.social's first lead paper!
innovativegenomics.bsky.social Innovative Genomics Institute @innovativegenomics.bsky.social · Dec 18
New in Nucleic Acids Research from the Rubin Lab — OriGen, a language model that can generate plasmid origins of replication. 🔄🦠 The model makes sequences that are remarkably different from wild type origins, yet still replicate in vivo. Read here: https://ow.ly/jjOt50XIBxb
Close-up of a glowing circuit board with intricate copper pathways converging around a bright DNA helix symbol.
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
🦠 Can microbes help with contamination cleanup? To find out, our researchers investigated the genes and traits of Iodidimonas, a bacterial group common in systems that treat produced water left over from oil and gas production. Read more: go.lbl.gov/Iodidimonas

@eesaberkeleylab.bsky.social
Examining the Role of Bacteria in Produced Water Treatment - Biosciences Area
Bacteria found in water leftover from oil and gas extraction can help inform the biological treatment of wastewater.
go.lbl.gov
December 19, 2025 at 6:04 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Scientists @jbei.lbl.gov are helping speed up plant engineering with a new technology called ENTRAP-seq, which can screen thousands of gene regulators for plants simultaneously. Read more: go.lbl.gov/ENTRAP-seq

#BioEGSB | @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
December 18, 2025 at 10:00 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Combining light, chemistry, and automation, Volumetric Imaging via Photochemical Sectioning (VIPS), developed by #BioMBIB's Gokul Upadhyayula and @uicbios.bsky.social's Ruixuan Gao, makes it possible to see nanoscale details deep inside intact, whole-mount tissues. Read more: go.lbl.gov/VIPS
VIPS overcomes working-distance limits by light-driven photochemical specimen removal (top). Iterative on-block imaging (imaged volume, dark orange) interleaved with photochemical sectioning produces contiguous volumes, effectively eliminating physical sample size as a constraint. This enables super-resolution imaging of entire mouse olfactory bulbs (center) and comparative, whole-mount analysis of axons and myelin sheaths in wild-type versus neurodegenerative mice (bottom insets).
December 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
We are hiring! Come join #TeamBioSci and help us bring science solutions to the world @berkeleylab.lbl.gov!

The @jgi.doe.gov has an opening for a Bioinformatician to join the Synthetic Biology Group. Ian Blaby is the Hiring Manager.

jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/bioinfo...
December 4, 2025 at 10:13 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
What if better food, fabrics, and more could be grown in a lab? Biomanufacturing experts are leading the way in scaling-up synthetics for items you rely on every day. Learn how precision fermentation can power the future of products in your home. Watch the video: vimeo.com/1121969286/8...
Science Power-up: Where Biomanufacturing Can Take Us This Century
Deepti Tanjore, biomanufacturing expert and Director of the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU), shares how scale-up technologies…
vimeo.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:02 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
X-ray diffraction data collected at #BioMBIB beamlines at the @als.lbl.gov revealed the structure of a new compound that targets a key enzyme in the cell membrane of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. Led by @tamu.bsky.social & @scripps.edu. @berkeleylab.lbl.gov Read more: go.lbl.gov/TB
A cross-section of the crystal structure for the enzyme Pks13 (the surface colored pink and blue by hydrophobicity) as it interacts with CMX410 (shown as stick-like structure), a new drug candidate for TB.
November 26, 2025 at 7:23 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
The ABPDU Chang Dou and #BioBSE's Blake Simmons were honored at the recent AIChE Annual Meeting—Dou with the 2025 Shining Star Award for volunteerism, and Simmons with the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bio-Engineering Division 15A plenary award.
AIChE President Joseph D. Smith (left) congratulates 2025 Shining Star Award recipient, ABPDU's Chang Dou. Session Chair Jie Dong (left) presents the plenary award plaque to BSE Division Director Blake Simmons.
November 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
#BioBSE's Daniel Fletcher is among the newly elected members of @nam.edu, an honor that recognizes outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the fields of health and medicine.

Read more: lnkd.in/gyAJgfmR

@berkeleylab.lbl.gov | @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
ICYMI: Neleah Aquino, a Community College Internships participant mentored this summer by #BioEGSB's Dawn Chiniquy and Elena Perry, took second place in the 2025 IGNITE Off! national competition. Watch her presentation on methane-eating bacteria: vimeo.com/user96128995...
November 21, 2025 at 9:04 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Congratulations to the Biosciences Area's 2025 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov Director's Award recipients: Kateryna Zhalnina (Early Career), Jonelle Tamara Basso (Mentorship), Kjiersten Fagnan (Organizational Impact), Graham Fleming (Scientific), and Bruce Cohen (Scientific)!

@jgi.doe.gov #BioEGSB #BioMBIB
A postcard with headshots of the awardees in hexagonal shapes and the Director's Award logo.
November 20, 2025 at 8:08 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
Congratulations to the 21 researchers from the Biosciences Area @berkeleylab.lbl.gov who are among @clarivateag.bsky.social's #HighlyCited2025! View the full list: clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers

@jgi.doe.gov @jbei.lbl.gov @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social #BioBSE #BioEGSB #BioMBIB
November 19, 2025 at 7:45 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
@jgi.doe.gov sr. engineering associate Berkeley Kauffman was arriving at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's main site when he encountered this guy out for a morning stroll. "It's aways cool seeing how much wildlife shares the Hill with us!" he noted. #WildlifeWednesday
September 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
ICYMI: @berkeleylab.lbl.gov is integrating artificial intelligence, automation, and powerful data systems to transform the speed and scale of discovery across scientific disciplines. Read about 8 ways we're using AI to make research faster, smarter, and more impactful. go.lbl.gov/AI_listicle
How AI and Automation are Speeding Up Science and Discovery
Berkeley Lab is transforming research across disciplines from energy to materials science and more, strengthening American innovation and the nation’s scientific edge.
newscenter.lbl.gov
September 23, 2025 at 10:33 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
#BioBSE researchers Jay Keasling and @cdscown.bsky.social are contributing to a cleaner planet by being part of a newly funded project to develop biodegradable bioplastics from domestic biomass. #WorldCleanupDay

@berkeleyengineer.bsky.social
@berkeleylab.lbl.gov

go.lbl.gov/bioplastics
Researchers leverage advanced bioengineering techniques to develop plastics made from sustainable biomaterials
Less than 10% of plastics are recycled. A Purdue-led team, backed by NSF, is creating durable bioplastics from raw materials — reducing waste and strengthening sustainable manufacturing.
go.lbl.gov
September 20, 2025 at 4:58 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
To advance the fight against antibiotic resistance, a team led by @fraserlab.com developed a compound that could help restore the effectiveness of a class of antibiotics known as streptogramins. They used data collected at @als.lbl.gov & SSRL. #BioMBIB @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

go.lbl.gov/streptogramins
Researchers use synchrotron X-rays to identify promising candidate in the battle against antibiotic resistance
X-rays unveil new molecular structure details that will help researchers design novel drug therapies to address antibiotic resistant bacteria.
go.lbl.gov
September 19, 2025 at 5:14 PM
biosci.lbl.gov
We are chuffed to have 6 postdocs representing #TeamBioSci in the 8th annual @berkeleylab.lbl.gov  Research SLAM tomorrow, Thurs Sept 18 @ 3 PM PDT! Lab staff can attend live on the Hill or tune in virtually and cast votes for the People's Choice Award. Everyone else, watch this space for updates!
Clockwise from top left: Thasneem Frousnoon, Laura Cook, Marta Cerruti, Jacob Rapp, Heejung Cho, and Jaya Tripathi.
September 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM