Happy holidays to those who celebrate and best wishes for a peaceful close to 2025! We'll be back in the new year with more exciting science solutions that @berkeleylab.lbl.gov is bringing to the world.

Revisit one of @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's Big Science Stories of 2025: a new "pee-cycling" process using a modified yeast to produce a material from urine that can used to repair bones and teeth. go.lbl.gov/osteoyeast #BioEGSB| @jgi.doe.gov | @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov

Congrats to #BioEGSB affiliate scientist Ben Rubin and team on publication of @therubinlab.bsky.social's first lead paper!

🦠 Can microbes help with contamination cleanup? To find out, our researchers investigated the genes and traits of Iodidimonas, a bacterial group common in systems that treat produced water left over from oil and gas production. Read more: go.lbl.gov/Iodidimonas @eesaberkeleylab.bsky.social

Scientists @jbei.lbl.gov are helping speed up plant engineering with a new technology called ENTRAP-seq, which can screen thousands of gene regulators for plants simultaneously. Read more: go.lbl.gov/ENTRAP-seq #BioEGSB | @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Combining light, chemistry, and automation, Volumetric Imaging via Photochemical Sectioning (VIPS), developed by #BioMBIB's Gokul Upadhyayula and @uicbios.bsky.social's Ruixuan Gao, makes it possible to see nanoscale details deep inside intact, whole-mount tissues. Read more: go.lbl.gov/VIPS

We are hiring! Come join #TeamBioSci and help us bring science solutions to the world @berkeleylab.lbl.gov! The @jgi.doe.gov has an opening for a Bioinformatician to join the Synthetic Biology Group. Ian Blaby is the Hiring Manager. jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/bioinfo...

What if better food, fabrics, and more could be grown in a lab? Biomanufacturing experts are leading the way in scaling-up synthetics for items you rely on every day. Learn how precision fermentation can power the future of products in your home. Watch the video: vimeo.com/1121969286/8...

X-ray diffraction data collected at #BioMBIB beamlines at the @als.lbl.gov revealed the structure of a new compound that targets a key enzyme in the cell membrane of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. Led by @tamu.bsky.social & @scripps.edu. @berkeleylab.lbl.gov Read more: go.lbl.gov/TB

The ABPDU Chang Dou and #BioBSE's Blake Simmons were honored at the recent AIChE Annual Meeting—Dou with the 2025 Shining Star Award for volunteerism, and Simmons with the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Bio-Engineering Division 15A plenary award.

#BioBSE's Daniel Fletcher is among the newly elected members of @nam.edu, an honor that recognizes outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the fields of health and medicine. Read more: lnkd.in/gyAJgfmR @berkeleylab.lbl.gov | @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social

ICYMI: Neleah Aquino, a Community College Internships participant mentored this summer by #BioEGSB's Dawn Chiniquy and Elena Perry, took second place in the 2025 IGNITE Off! national competition. Watch her presentation on methane-eating bacteria: vimeo.com/user96128995...

Congratulations to the Biosciences Area's 2025 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov Director's Award recipients: Kateryna Zhalnina (Early Career), Jonelle Tamara Basso (Mentorship), Kjiersten Fagnan (Organizational Impact), Graham Fleming (Scientific), and Bruce Cohen (Scientific)! @jgi.doe.gov #BioEGSB #BioMBIB

Congratulations to the 21 researchers from the Biosciences Area @berkeleylab.lbl.gov who are among @clarivateag.bsky.social's #HighlyCited2025! View the full list: clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers @jgi.doe.gov @jbei.lbl.gov @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social #BioBSE #BioEGSB #BioMBIB

@jgi.doe.gov sr. engineering associate Berkeley Kauffman was arriving at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov's main site when he encountered this guy out for a morning stroll. "It's aways cool seeing how much wildlife shares the Hill with us!" he noted. #WildlifeWednesday

ICYMI: @berkeleylab.lbl.gov is integrating artificial intelligence, automation, and powerful data systems to transform the speed and scale of discovery across scientific disciplines. Read about 8 ways we're using AI to make research faster, smarter, and more impactful. go.lbl.gov/AI_listicle

#BioBSE researchers Jay Keasling and @cdscown.bsky.social are contributing to a cleaner planet by being part of a newly funded project to develop biodegradable bioplastics from domestic biomass. #WorldCleanupDay @berkeleyengineer.bsky.social @berkeleylab.lbl.gov go.lbl.gov/bioplastics

To advance the fight against antibiotic resistance, a team led by @fraserlab.com developed a compound that could help restore the effectiveness of a class of antibiotics known as streptogramins. They used data collected at @als.lbl.gov & SSRL. #BioMBIB @berkeleylab.lbl.gov go.lbl.gov/streptogramins

We are chuffed to have 6 postdocs representing #TeamBioSci in the 8th annual @berkeleylab.lbl.gov  Research SLAM tomorrow, Thurs Sept 18 @ 3 PM PDT! Lab staff can attend live on the Hill or tune in virtually and cast votes for the People's Choice Award. Everyone else, watch this space for updates!

Congratulations to #BioMBIB faculty scientist Susan Marqusee, who was named to The Protein Society's inaugural Fellows class. Susan is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social  and Director of @qb3-berkeley.bsky.social .

Hira Lesea lived many lives—from punk rocker to retreat chef—before becoming a sr. research associate in #BioEGSB. These days, she's into cultivating a sense of collaborative creativity, both in her work @berkeleylab.lbl.gov  and in her personal life. Read her story: go.lbl.gov/lesea #TeamBioSci

Hiding in plain sight - how close are we to mapping ALL 🧬enhancers🧬 in the genome? Our new paper by Mannion et al. takes a systematic look at "hidden enhancers" and why they remain so hard to find. With @mosterwalder.bsky.social, @jlopezrios.bsky.social & many more www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Setsuko Wakao of @berkeleylab.lbl.gov will map how diatoms, which produce intricate glass-like cell walls that could inspire new biomaterials, regulate biomineralization processes by identifying genes and regulatory proteins controlling silica formation. jointgeno.me/FY25FG

A team at Indiana University, Bloomington, used beamline 8.2.2 @als.lbl.gov  to perform x-ray protein crystallography to resolve the structure of the RNA cloverleaf-protein complex, which plays a critical role in viral replication. 👉 go.lbl.gov/cloverleaf

We are hiring! Come join #TeamBioSci and help us bring science solutions to the world @berkeleylab.lbl.gov#TeamBioSci Kanupriya Pande's group in #BioMBIB has an opening for a Computational Postdoctoral Fellow (cryo-EM). https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?job=104578

Researchers @scripps.edu used the BCSB macromolecular crystallography beamline 5.0.2 @als.lbl.gov to characterize a protein from a modern shark gene that explains the evolution of the adaptive immune system shared by all vertebrates. #BioMBIB 🦈 go.lbl.gov/bcsb-shark

Congratulations to the SIBYLS beamline team on being recognized with the 2025 Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation for pioneering the development of time-resolved, high-throughput, small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) for collection of data from biological samples @als.lbl.gov.

A study led by #BioBSE researchers sheds light on the risks cosmic rays pose to the behavioral health of astronauts. The results suggest a paradigm shift away from DNA as the target for damage by certain light ions, which abound in outer space. Read more: go.lbl.gov/ure3ga

#BioEGSB's @pcronald.bsky.social received the President’s Award for Advancement of Common Good from @stanford.edu for her research on environmental stress resilience in rice, which led to the development of flood-tolerant rice now grown by +6M farmers in SE Asia. https://go.lbl.gov/ronald-stanford

#BioMBIB faculty scientist Markita Landry's lab @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social developed a novel nanosensor for #oxytocin that was recently used in a collaboration with Cal colleague Annaliese Beery's lab to show that the "love hormone" is important for friendships, too. go.lbl.gov/oxytocin

Improvements to DAP-seq technology enable it to handle larger genomes and could expand opportunities for bioenergy and bioengineering applications—via multiplexed assays and data integration with single-cell gene expression maps. Full story: jgi.doe.gov/user-science... @axelvisel.bsky.social 🖥️🧬 🌱

A team led by scientists @ucdavis.bsky.social, that included Daniil Prigozhin of #BioMBIB, used AI to help plants recognize a wider range of bacterial threats. The approach may lead to new ways to protect crops like tomatoes and potatoes from devastating diseases. go.lbl.gov/plant-immune-upgrade

Congratulations to @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social on being the 2026 recipient of the @acs.org's Priestley Medal! Doudna was recognized for her high-impact discoveries on #RNA molecules with enzymatic functions, including the development of #CRISPR 🧬 ✂️. More 👉 go.lbl.gov/doudna-priestly 📷 Glenn Ramit

Ruiwen Hu, a postdoc in #BioEGSB, attended #LiNo25 in #Chemistry as part of the UC President’s annual fellowship program. The event “offered a rare opportunity to engage directly with some of the world’s foremost scientific minds," including Nobel Laureate Moungi Bawendi (pictured with Hu).

Take a few minutes to watch @jgi.doe.gov postdoc Yumary Vasquez talk abt "going viral" in a BIG way at the National Lab SLAM last March. Learn how infections from giant viruses can impact our water, air, soil, even the gut microbiome! youtu.be/vDgS4gGUwvE?... #FlashbackFriday @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

It's fascinating to watch the @berkeleylab.lbl.gov riggers at work in the @als.lbl.gov!

Join #TeamBioSci & help us bring science solutions to the world at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov! We are #hiring an Advanced Analysis Manager & Research Associate Principal at @jgi.doe.gov, DevOps Software Engineer at @kbase.us & a computational postdoc for #cryoEM in #BioMBIB. go.lbl.gov/bioscijobs

This week on the pod 🔊 🌊 The deepest ecosystem ever discovered 🦠 How infections could awaken dormant cancer go.nature.com/4mngShS

Researchers from Novartis Biomedical Research used a #BioMBIB -run beamline at the @als.lbl.gov to confirm the structure of an engineered immune system protein that could open new opportunities to treat inflammatory bowel disease. go.lbl.gov/atg38j #IBD #AcceleratingScience @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Congratulations to this year's cohort for completing their STEM programs at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov. These young minds will be at the forefront of advancing scientific research. Thanks to Dr. Faith Dukes, Director of K-12 STEM Education Programs, for making this possible.

Today we wrap up our retiree celebration by wishing Rene Perrier a fond farewell after 21+ years of service on #TeamBioSci at @berkeleylab.lbl.gov. He developed web applications to help scientists around the world access the awesome resources of the @jgi.doe.gov. Congratulations, Rene! 🙌 🎉

Congratulations to Lisa Kegg on her retirement! She started at the @jgi.doe.gov in 1999 through Livermore National Lab and transferred to @berkeleylab.lbl.gov nine years later. She has been a key member of the JGI Operations team since 2010. Thanks for supporting science on #TeamBioSci, Lisa!

Woot! 🙌 The retiree celebration continues! 🙌 Igor Ratnere has retired from @berkeleylab.lbl.gov with more than 20 years of service. Igor was a software engineer at the @jgi.doe.gov and he developed biological software and hashtag#genomics databases. 🧬 #TeamBioSci wishes you all the best! 🎉

Congratulations to Lisa Simirenko on her retirement from @berkeleylab.lbl.gov! She was at the Lab for over 23 years, the last 12 of them on #TeamBioSci in the synthetic biology group at the @jgi.doe.gov. Best of luck in your next chapter, Lisa!

This week, we are celebrating some of our #TeamBioSci retirees! Katherine Schall worked in many parts of @berkeleylab.lbl.gov over 15 years. She was with the #ABPDU from its start in 2011. Before that, she worked in HR, @lbnlengineering.bsky.social & the @als.lbl.gov. Congratulations, Katherine!

Our lab is hunting a fast-growing strain of Fomitopsis betulina. Anyone have any leads? @msafungi.bsky.social #FungiFriday en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomitop...

Congrats to #BioMBIB faculty scientist James Fraser! He received the Carl Brändén Award during the #PS39 @proteinsociety.bsky.social meeting for outstanding contributions to #ProteinScience that span research, education & service. @fraserlab.com @berkeleylab.lbl.gov @ucsfmedicine.bsky.social

Photosystem II produces the air we breathe and protects the plant from too much energy. Graham Fleming & his team have pieced together how energy moves through this complex system. Their work has big implications for #bioenergy and #agriculture. 👉 go.lbl.gov/PSII #BioMBIB @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

For more @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov enabled science, check out work by Corie Ralston (#BioMBIB) on the FLASH effect, an emerging frontier in radiation oncology, and Cheryl Kerfeld (#BioEGSB) on adapting nature’s approach to compartmentalizing biochemical reactions: go.lbl.gov/FLASH; go.lbl.gov/CCBC