Powering enzymes with light to make ammonia

Scientists examine how molecular systems made of nanocrystals and proteins support the production of ammonia using light.

14-Aug-2024 - The Earth’s atmosphere contains large amounts of nitrogen in the form of dinitrogen gas (N2). Converting N2to ammonia (NH3) is critical for making the fertilizer needed for agriculture. Currently, ammonia production requires 2% of the global energy and generates significant greenhouse gases. In ...

Scientists use quantum biology, AI to sharpen genome editing tool

"This study represents an exciting advancement toward, understanding how we can avoid making costly ‘typos’ in an organism’s genetic code"

21-Nov-2023 - Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals. CRISPR is a powerful tool ...

Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing

The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals

15-May-2023 - Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. A research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals. The advance ...

Structure of 'oil-eating' enzyme opens door to bioengineered catalysts

Atomic level details reveal how enzyme selectively breaks hydrocarbon bonds, suggesting bioengineering strategies for making useful chemicals

04-Apr-2023 - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have produced the first atomic-level structure of an enzyme that selectively cuts carbon-hydrogen bonds—the first and most challenging step in turning simple hydrocarbons into more useful chemicals. As described in a ...

Fertilizing the ocean to store carbon dioxide

Iron-based fertilizer, engineered into nanoparticles, could help store excess carbon dioxide in the ocean

01-Dec-2022 - The urgent need to remove excess carbon dioxide from Earth’s environment could include enlisting some of our planet’s smallest inhabitants, according to an international research team led by Michael Hochella of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Hochella and his ...

Bringing custom microbes to the business of recycling plastic

Two-step chemical and biological process approach turns mixed plastic waste into valuable new materials

26-Oct-2022 - Scientists working on a solution for plastic waste have developed a two-step chemical and biological process to break down and upcycle mixed plastics into valuable bioproducts. The project, which involves multiple institutions, draws on synthetic biology expertise at the Department of Energy’s ...

SARS-CoV-2 protein caught severing critical immunity pathway

Powerful X-rays from SLAC’s synchrotron reveal that our immune system’s primary wiring seems to be no match for a brutal SARS-CoV-2 protein

13-Sep-2022 - Over the past two years, scientists have studied the SARS-CoV-2 virus in great detail, laying the foundation for developing COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral treatments. Now, for the first time, scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have seen one of the ...

Bacteria for blastoff: Using microbes to make supercharged new rocket fuel

Scientists have developed a new class of energy-dense biofuels based on one of nature’s most unique molecules

04-Jul-2022 - Converting petroleum into fuels involves crude chemistry first invented by humans in the 1800s. Meanwhile, bacteria have been producing carbon-based energy molecules for billions of years. Which do you think is better at the job? Well aware of the advantages biology has to offer, a group of ...

Can proteins bind based only on their shapes?

A team using the nation’s fastest supercomputer to look at protein binding finds that some binding processes are simpler than expected

03-Nov-2021 - Proteins bind to one another through a complex mix of chemical interactions. What if some proteins bind due to their shapes, a much simpler process? To answer this question, researchers used Summit, the nation’s fastest supercomputer, to model lock-and-key interactions. In these interactions, ...

Study reveals how Ebola blocks immune system

03-Sep-2014 - Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have identified one way the Ebola virus dodges the body's antiviral defenses, providing important insight that could lead to new therapies, in research results published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. In work performed at Beamline ...