Biology Turns Corner
With Man-Made Genome

Colonies of the transformed Mycoplasma mycoides bacterium

J. Craig Venter has devoted much of his career to understanding the engineering of other organisms. He was the leader of one of two teams that sequenced the human genome, and according to a just-released paper, he has designed and built a genome, using Mycoplasma mycoides bacterium. In other words, he may have created life. Man-made genomes could lead to new species that churn out drugs to treat disease, finely tuned vaccines that target just the right lethal bug, even cells that convert sunlight into a biofuel. "We are starting to turn the corner," says Jay Keasling, director of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division. "The technologies are starting to be put in place, and it's crazy to keep doing biology the way we are doing it." Full story.

Lab Aids Oregon
Ethanol Demo Plant

Pacific Ethanol plant

Sacramento- based Pacific Ethanol will build a demonstration plant in Boardman, OR to produce ethanol from byproducts such as corn stalks, wheat straw and poplar trees with the help of up to $24.3 million from the Department of Energy. The award was announced Tuesday, as part of the $114 million the U.S. Department of Energy plans to spend over four years on four small-scale biorefinery demonstration projects across the nation. Berkeley and Sandia Labs are participating as part of DOE’s Joint Bioenergy Institute. Full story.

Study Shows Truckers' Deaths Linked to Diesel

The odds of dying from heart disease are nearly 50 percent higher for truck drivers than the general U.S. population, and diesel exhaust is a likely culprit, according to a new Harvard University study. The findings are important not only for transportation workers but also for people who commute in heavy diesel-fueled traffic or who live or work near truck terminals, ports and railroad yards, said Cynthia Garcia, a California state air pollution scientist. She cited a Berkeley Lab study published earlier this month showing that diesel soot in the Bay Area has decreased nearly three-fold in the past 40 years even as fuel consumption increased six-fold. Full story.

Lab Software Download Site
Has New Updates

A new version of Symantec antivirus (SAV 10.1.7) has replaced the prior version for Windows operating systems up through XP.  In addition, 7-zip, an open source utility for file compression, has been added to the unsupported downloads link. Go here for the software download site. Read more about this topic and other IT news here.  

Dining Services Seeks
Employee Feedback

Cal Dining, Berkeley Lab's new food service provider, invites employees to offer their comments on the recent changes at the cafeteria by filling out a brief survey. The information will assist Cal Dining in providing the best possible service and menu to staff. The last day to send in comments is tomorrow. Go here to take the survey.