A hidden treasure lies within lignin—every year 100 million tons of lignin is produced, yet most of it is wasted. Researchers at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov developed a scalable method for turning lignin into benzylamines, chemicals used in the production of dye, fertilizer, pesticide, and pharmaceuticals

We are excited to see so many familiar faces among the recipients of the @jgi.doe.gov - @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov Critical Minerals & Materials call. We are looking forward to writing about all of your great discoveries! @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Joint Genome Institute@jgi.doe.gov · 4w ago

Congrats to the 20 recipients of our first Critical Minerals & Materials call, in partnership with @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov! These projects integrate genomics with nanoscale science, aimed at developing transformative bio-based technologies involving critical minerals and materials.

Jack here! I toured the SIBYLS Beamline at the @als.lbl.gov with #BioMBIB researcher Scott Classen. Scott is working on  BilboMD, a computational platform for predicting protein structures based off real world X-ray data. The website is free, making it super easy for other researchers to use.✨

Today is #NationalInternDay, and we are thrilled to spotlight Jack Addison, a SULI intern who has worked with our communications team this summer. Jack has been the creative force behind our first-person social media content. Thank you for helping us share the story of Biosciences Area research!

Today we wrap up our retiree celebration by wishing Bill Jagust all the best as he embarks on a new chapter after 39 years on #TeamBioSci. He redefined the PET brain imaging program using new tracers to study aging and dementia and will continue as a professor at UC Berkeley. Congratulations, Bill!

Berkeley Lab researchers combined experimental data with AI and supercomputers to develop a new web-based platform that accelerates structural insights. Learn about how they're bringing a new angle to studying proteins: https://biosciences.lbl.gov/2026/07/27/a-new-angle-for-studying-proteins/

Continuing our retiree celebration, today we acknowledge Olga Diaz's 21+ years with Berkeley Lab—18 of them as executive assistant to @jbei.lbl.gov CEO Jay Keasling @keaslinglab.bsky.social . Thanks for supporting science on #TeamBioSci, Olga!

Congratulations to Eltra Green on her impending retirement at the end of the year. As business manager for the Biosciences at Berkeley Operations Center, Eltra has kept us "in the pink"—her favorite color 🩷. #TeamBioSci wishes you all the best! 🎉

Today we're kicking off a celebration of our 2026 retirees by acknowledging Wendi Lynch's 10 years of service as a senior administrator for the @jgi.doe.gov. Thank you for supporting science on #TeamBioSci, Wendi. Enjoy your next adventure!

Hi, Jack here! I recently met #BioEGSB’s Peter Andeer for a tour of the EcoBOT self-driving lab. The latest in a line of evolving plant–microbe 🌱🦠 research tech developed at Berkeley Lab, EcoBOT autonomously manages small ecosystems, EcoFABs, that control growth conditions to the microbial level 🧫.

Straight from the headlines! Learn more about the July cover story from @natmicrobiol.nature.com on the latest episode of our #GenomeInsider podcast — "The Mobilome in the Mire" 🦠 Find it here: jgi.doe.gov/user-science... @simrouxvirus.bsky.social @scbagby.bsky.social @biosci.lbl.gov

Nature Microbiology@natmicrobiol.nature.com · last mo.

Walk through our July issue! Read about 💊Microbiome and AMR 🧊Permafrost microbes 🦠Phages and flagella ⚕️Cholera protection 💉Poxvirus vaccine design 🍄Commensal skin yeast and much more! www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/v... #MicroSky

A recent article about fungal dye production included work by @jbei.lbl.gov & #BioBSE scientist Aindrila Mukhopadhyay. Making synthetic indigo is a toxic process. Aindrila’s team engineered genes into the fungus Rhodosporidium Toruloides to naturally produce the similar indigoidine dye. Read more 👇.

Built by a team of Berkeley Lab biologists, mathematicians, and engineers, EcoBOT is a self-driving lab that uses advanced computer vision to track plant growth with unprecedented precision. It then applies algorithms to analyze that data and autonomously design and perform follow-up experiments.

Hi all, Jack here! I recently toured Theia, the powerful custom cryo-EM project led by #BioMBIB scientist Holger Müller. Typical cryo-EMs sacrifice resolution for contrast; Theia uses a laser phase plate to increase contrast while maintaining a higher resolution thanks to its custom configuration.

Hi everyone, my name is Jack. I'm a SULI summer intern at Berkeley Lab. Over the next several weeks I’ll be creating posts sharing my experiences learning about cool research projects across the Biosciences Area. I hope you enjoy this series as I much as I enjoy making it!

One more reason to watch the World Cup ⚽: In 2022, JGI User @szintri.bsky.social and his team looked at grasses for clues about crop resilience — and spotted their study species on stadium pitches! Hear their story: jointgeno.me/s04e01

Theia is a custom cryo-EM that uses a laser-based phase-contrast plate to produce high-res images. #BioMBIB's Holger Müller led R&D in collab w/ @berkeleylab.lbl.gov & @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social physicists and machinists with support from @biohub.org.

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

f.mtr.cool

Congratulations to @jbei.lbl.gov's  Corinne Scown on being named one of the 2026 Top Agri-food Pioneers by the World Food Prize Foundation! Scown's work focuses on modeling the economic and environmental impacts of advanced pathways to bio-based fuels and products. Link to read more in comments. 👇

Structural biology + AI-assisted computer modeling + Directed evolution = A faster path to protein design. By manipulating the “promiscuity” of a designed protein, a team including #BioMBIB faculty scientist James Fraser created two novel proteins with specialized functions. Link in comments. 👇

Leveraging new tools and large-scale data mining, @jgi.doe.gov researchers nearly tripled the available fungal mitochondrial genome data, unlocking new potential for AI-driven studies of energy metabolism. 🍄 Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/guExxUg5

Phage Foundry lead @vivekmutalik.bsky.social was mentioned in a Q&A by Aeron Hammack of the @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov. Phages are bacterial antagonists useful in medicine; Phage Foundry is making a database of them. Mutalik’s team saves researchers resources by bypassing a demanding research phase.

Out today in Nature, new research from Jennifer Doudna, postdoc @jingkunzeng.bsky.social, and collaborators shows a #CRISPR-based method for selectively killing "undruggable" #cancers by recognizing cells with cancer-causing mutations and shredding their DNA. Learn more: https://ow.ly/NRss50Z8tQK

Quantum tech is growing, but the industry faces a critical shortage of trained scientists and engineers. Berkeley Lab’s A-LIFT Office and Sandia National Laboratories are bridging this gap through the QCaMP program!  Read more about our impact and how to get involved: go.lbl.gov/QCaMP

Nuclear medicine got it's start in what would become the Biosciences Area at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov. The field is now undergoing a massive evolution. Hear about the shift from traditional beta-emitting isotopes to the high-energy power of alpha emitters. 🎧 https://youtu.be/xHwxfi71RCE

How can quantum-related phenomena exist in the "warm, wet, and noisy" environments of living systems? A new @pnas.org  perspective from @princeton.edu's  Gregory Scholes and #BioMBIB’s Graham Fleming lays out where the field of quantum biology stands — and where it's going next.

At Berkeley Lab, we share our main campus with a plethora of critters—snakes, turkeys, deer, and bobcats, to name a few. But we don't have baby bison like @fermilab.bsky.social does! Enjoy a few pics courtesy of our fellow national lab colleagues for #WildlifeWednesday.

@ucsanfrancisco.bsky.social researchers led by #BioMBIB faculty scientist @fraserlab.com pioneered a new method to guide rapid design of super-powered proteins. They leveraged nat'l lab light sources including the @als.lbl.gov's beamline 8.3.1 run by fellow MBIB faculty scientist James Holton.

Gary Karpen, a senior faculty scientist in #BioBSE and @berkeleymcb.bsky.social professor, is among the 2026 class elected to the @nasonline.org. Karpen studies how the structure, organization, and maintenance of genetic material impact inheritance and cell function. go.lbl.gov/Karpen-NAS

Stop by the @berkeleylab.lbl.gov booth at #SynBioBeta2026 and learn how to work with the Agile BioFoundry and @jgi.doe.gov to access our resources!

A pair of recent studies involving scientists from #BioBSE shed new light on the potential dangers of thirdhand smoke—not just for cancer risk, but for brain health as well. They provide compelling evidence that environmental exposures interact with genetic variation to shape health outcomes.