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The Life Sciences Division contributes to strategic Berkeley Lab and National efforts by developing and applying advanced technologies for elucidation of mechanisms involved in response to low level ionizing radiation, cancer and the microenvironment, neurodegenerative diseases, bio-fuel production and bioremediation.

Publication Highlight

Life's Cargo Carrier of the Cells
Life's smallest motor, a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw, according to research conducted by scientists at Berkeley Lab and Brandeis University. The researchers created high-resolution snapshots of a protein motor, called kinesin, as it walked along a microtubule, which are tube-shaped structures that form a cell's "skeleton." The result is the closest look yet at the structural changes kinesin proteins undergo as they ferry molecules within cells.  

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Award Highlight


Stimulus Funds for Health Research
Berkeley Lab has been awarded $12.8 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research into cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, radioactive decontamination and a variety of other health conditions. "We're helping to train the nation's next generation of scientists while also doing important research in critical areas of human health that we may not have been able to do without these funds," said Joe Gray, Life Sciences Division Director.

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