New Technique for Tracking Gene Regulators

Finding out where gene-regulator proteins bind to DNA and identifying the genes they regulate just got a step easier thanks to a new technique developed by biologist John Dunn and his collaborators at Oregon Health and Science U., Emory School of Medicine, and Stony Brook University. The technique could greatly speed the process of unraveling the role these proteins play in turning on and off the genes that establish the very identity of cells.

Identifying the Path to Infection

Biophysicist Huilin Li and his collaborators at Stony Brook University have determined the two-dimensional crystal structure of a membrane protein involved in the process by which the Escherichia coli bacteria infects a human. This protein structure is a first step to better understanding how an E coli infection begins, which may lead to information on how to block it.

First Glimpse of DNA Binding to Viral Enzyme

Walter Mangel, a biophysicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and his collaborators at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have produced the first molecular-scale images of DNA binding to an adenovirus enzyme - a step they believe is essential for the virus to cause infection. The images are already being used to design new antiviral drugs to block this interaction.

New Machine for Biology Research Prevents Pollution at Brookhaven Lab

As part of its Pollution Prevention Program, BNL recently invested in a microwave peptide synthesizer. Biophysicist Walter Mangel and his experimental team plan to use the peptide synthesizer for National Institutes of Health-funded research on the SARS virus.

Research Reveals Functions of Anti-Cancer Molecule

A research team including Huilin Li, now a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has discovered the mechanism of epothilone A (EpoA), a next-generation cancer treatment. Now in Phase III clinical trials, EpoA may avoid many of the problems associated with paclitaxel (Taxol), the widely used chemotherapeutic agent, which acts in a similar way.

Brookhaven Biophysicist Studier Wins R&D 100 Award for  Method Simplifying Protein Production

F. William Studier, a biophysicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has won a 2004 R&D 100 award for developing a new process that simplifies the production of proteins in the widely used T7 gene expression system. The T7 expression system is used worldwide by academia and industry to produce specific proteins within bacterial cells.

Study Finds Plant Enzyme Function Changes with Location in Cell

Scientists have long thought that individual enzymes have specific, single jobs dependent on their molecular shape. Now, biochemist John Shanklin and Ingo Heilman have discovered another factor that can change several plant enzymes' functions instantaneously: their location within the cell. Depending on where these enzymes end up, they produce slightly different products.

Botulinium Toxin Structure Offers Clues for Vaccines/Treatments

By deciphering the near atomic-level structure of the catalytic domain of botulinum toxin type E - one of seven neurotoxins that cause botulism - biologist Subramanyam Swaminathan and his team at Brookhaven National Laboratory are one step closer to a potential vaccine or treatment.

Scientists 'Beef Up' Plant-Dwelling Bacteria to Boost Phycoremediation

Using plants to soak up and degrade environmental pollutants, a strategy known as phytoremediation, can be more successful if pollutants or their metabolites are prevented from evaporating via the leaves back into the atmosphere. Brookhaven biologist Daniel van der Lelie and his collaborators in Belgium think they've found a way to improve the process: transfer genes from pollutant-degrading bacteria into bacteria residing in the plants.

Brookhaven Lab Expects $30 Million to Support Life Sciences

The Biology Department recently announced that it expects to receive more than $30 million over the next five years, which will renew financing to support structural biological research. The funding, administered by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within DOE's Office of Science and by the National Center for Research Resources within the National Institutes of Health, will support a group of six work stations, called "beam lines," at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) facility at Brookhaven.