Biophysicists with the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) — including Jan Liphardt of Physical Biosciences Division — have traced with unprecedented resolution the paths of cargos moving through the nuclear pore complex (NPC), a selective nanoscale aperture that controls access to the cell’s nucleus, and answered several key questions about its function. The NPC, a large protein assembly shaped like a basketball net fringed with tentacles, is the gateway to the cell nucleus, where genetic information is stored. More>
The application to bioremediation and carbon sequestration studies of PET and SPECT, imaging technologies usually associated with medicine, and the use of the Advanced Light Source’s Chemical Dynamics Beamline to study atmospheric organic aerosols was the subject of two presentations by Berkeley Lab researchers at the Fall 2010 meeting of the American Chemical Society. Featured presenters were Nick Vandehey of the Life Sciences Division and Chris Cappa, a guest scientist at the Advanced Light Source. More>
Chaperonins are molecular machines that help chains of amino acids fold themselves into working proteins, or take the dents out of damaged proteins and restore them to operational shape. In the Sept. 3 Journal of Biological Chemistry a team of researchers from Berkeley Lab, Stanford, MIT, and UC Berkeley including Jose Pereira, Corie Ralston, and Paul Adams of the Physical Biosciences Division, working at the Advanced Light Source’s Berkeley Center for Structural Biology, announced new insights into how hitherto mysterious Group II chaperonins perform their essential functions. The report, chosen a Paper of the Week, is featured on the journal’s cover. More>
Elizabeth Bautista (left), a systems analyst for the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Facility (NERSC), and Victor Chan (right), a senior resource analyst for the Life Sciences Division, are the Lab’s two newest representatives on the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA). The council is comprised of delegates from every UC-managed institution, who meet quarterly with top UC administrators and regents to discuss issues that affect staff. Stefano DeSantis (Accelerator and Fusion Research) and Maryann Villavert (Earth Sciences), the previous representatives, will serve as mentors to the new delegates. Employees who have previously served as CUCSA members include Jeffrey Troutman, Bill Johansen, Liz Moxon, Carla Garbis, and Diana Attia.
Work is starting on the demolition of the Building 46C trailer, located on McMillan Road behind the Bevatron. The project is expected to last about three to four weeks. During that time, approximately four parking spots in the area will be blocked off to house debris boxes and scaffolding trucks. Upon completion, the area will be paved to make way for about nine new parking stalls. For more information, contact Susan McCutchan.
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