Dual-Function Enzyme Aids Plants' Defense Against Fungi

Biochemist Chang-Jun Liu, studying a plant enzyme involved in producing an anti-fungal compound found that this enzyme can perform two distict functions depending on the raw materials present. The results include crystallographic structures that illustrate that this methyltransferase can perform these functions by shaping similar but unrelated substrates.

Setting the Stage to Find Drugs Against SARS

Brookhaven biologist Walter Mangel and collaborators have set the stage for the rapid identification of compounds to fight against servere acquired respiratory syndrome (SARS) by identifying a component of the virus that will be the target of new anti-SARS virus drugs.

Scientists Convert Modern Enzyme into its Hypothesized Ancestor

By making a single substitution in the amino acid sequence of a modern desaturase Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin and his collaborators obtained an oxidase that may resemble an ancetral oxygen-detoxifying enzyme that led to modern desaturases and peroxidases.

Using Microbes to Fuel the U.S. Hydrogen Economy

“If the U.S. is to have a future hydrogen-based economy, we’ll need a way to generate abundant quantities of hydrogen safely and economically,“ says Brookhaven biologist Daniel van der Lelie. Van der Lelie will discuss the prospect of using vats of microbes to brew up the hydrogen in a talk at the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco.

One-Two Particle Punch Poses Greater Risk for Astronauts

It doesn't just matter how much radiation an astronaut is exposed to, time and the order in which charged particles strike human cells are important factors as well. That's the main finding of a study that cell biologist Betsy Sutherland and her team conducted at Brookhaven NASA Space Radiation Facility and published in the September 2006 edition of Radiation Research.

Scientists Take “Snapshots“ of Enzyme Action

Biologists S. Eswaramoorthy and Subramanyam Swaminathan, in collaboartion with colleagues at the New York Structural Biology Center, and SGX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., have determined the atomic crystal structure and functional mechanism of an enzyme essential for eliminating unwanted, non-nutritional compounds such as drugs, industrial chemicals, and toxic compounds from the body. Their report appeared in the June issue of PNAS.

Brookhaven Lab's Joseph Wall Receives 2006 Award from the Microscopy Society of America

Senior biophysicist Joseph Wall, has been selected to receive the 2006 Distinguished Scientist Award for the Biological Sciences, the highest honor bestowed by the Microscopy Society of America (MSA), an affiliate society of the American Institute of Physics. The award is given for internationally recognized research accomplishments and distinguished contributions to microscopy.

Fritz Henn Named Brookhaven Lab's Associate Director for Life Sciences

Fritz Henn, a board-certified psychiatrist and former Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, has been named Associate Laboratory Director for Life Sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, effective April 1.

Studies Suggest New Targets for Tuberculosis Treatments

With the hope of designing more effective treatments for tuberculosis, biophysicist Huilin Li with Guiquing Hu and collaborators at other institutions have published the first detailed reports on the biochemistry and structure of a protein-cleaving complex - a proteasome - that is essential to the TB bacterium's survival.

New Method for Identifying Microbes

Cellbiologist Niels van der Lelie and coworkers have developed a new, high-throughput technique for identifying the many species of microorganisms living in an unknown microbial community. The method has many applications from assessing the microbes present in environmental samples and identifying species useful for cleaning up contamination to distinguishing pathogens from harmless bacteria.

New Study Questions the Effects of Cosmic Proton Radiation on Human Cells

Before astronauts can safely travel far from Earth for long periods of time, it is important to know how protons affect cells - particularly the cells' DNA. Now, at Brookhaven's NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, a team of scientists lead by biologist Betsy Sutherland have found that protons are more damaging to DNA than previously assumed.