Biochemistry

Rethinking the Tree of Life with new tools

January 17, 2022

JaeJin Choi and Byung-Ju Kim| Research Outreach

Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone National Park

Finding Archaea: Archaeans inhabit some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Woese and Fox’s genetic analysis led them to redraw the Tree of Life, incorporating this third domain. (Photo: Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone National Park; Jim Peaco; March 2015; Catalog #20008d.)...

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Research shines a light on development of the visual cortex during the critical period after birth

January 19, 2022

UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Different layers of the cortex are visualized as depths in the ocean, with the sun playing the role of light/vision

Different layers of the cortex are visualized as depths in the ocean, with the sun playing the role of light/vision. (Illustration by...

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Microbes provide sustainable hydrocarbons for petrochemical industry

January 7, 2022

By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

Illustration of a bio-petroleum process

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers have developed a chemical technology that combines fermentation and chemical refining (center panels) to produce petroleum-like liquids (right) from renewable plants (left). (Image by John Beumer, courtesy of NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers)...

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Genetically modified rice could emit fewer greenhouse gases

January 3, 2022

Eric Roston | Bloomberg

Photo: Worker planting rice. (Adobe Stock)

Fifteen years after their initial meeting to discuss what has become the CRISPR revolution, Professors Jill Banfield and Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley,...

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"Self-destructing plastic" wins top Prize in Create the Future contest

October 7, 2021

SAE Media Group | Press Release

Example of film

Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced annually – equivalent to the entire weight of the human population. Less than 10% is recycled; most end up in landfills. A research team in the lab of Professor Ting Xu, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and...

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An expert on 'undruggable' targets tackles the coronavirus

October 5, 2020

Becky Bish | The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research

Dan Nomura

Nomura in his lab at UC Berkeley. Photo: Elena Zhukova

Throughout the grim reality of a global pandemic that has disrupted normal life for months, one persistent bright spot has been the robust response of the biomedical research community. The battle to develop vaccines and drugs to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19, the disease which it causes,...

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Dual-drug therapy shows promise for treating alcohol use disorder

August 3, 2021

By Robin Marks | UCSF

pouring liquor

(Photo: courtesy of UCSF)

UC San Francisco researchers have leveraged two new molecules, one of which is currently in clinical oncology trials, to devise a dual-drug therapy for alcohol use disorder (AUD), without the side effects or complications associated with current treatment regimens. The approach had highly successful results in mice and may be...

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Using light-initiated radical reaction to break the carbon-heteroatom bond

August 26, 2021

Kira Welter | Chemistry World

Man with blue light

Image courtesy of Chemistry World.

A reaction that kicks out a single nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur atom from six-membered rings using only blue light has been developed by US scientists.

The method involves breaking the C–N, C–O or C–S bond in saturated heterocycles and reclosing the ring to create smaller cyclic structures. "This avoids having to...