The Royal Netherlands Society for Microbiology (KNVM) recognizes m-CAFEs principal investigator Jillian Banfield with the ‘2023 Van Leeuwenhoek Medal’ for her impactful contributions to the understanding of complex microbial communities and their interaction with the environment. Her pioneering work on groundbreaking technologies such as genome-resolved metagenomics and community proteomics to study diverse communities of bacteria, archaea, and phages, has led to the addition of complete new … [Read more...]

This post is a repost of a North Carolina State University press release: In Ironic Twist, CRISPR System Used to Befuddle Bacteria Image courtesy of Rodolphe Barrangou, rbarran@ncsu.edu North Carolina State University Base editing within a community context. (A) An EcoFAB device filled with quartz sand (Left) and an EcoFAB device loaded with LB and synthetic soil community (Right). (B) EcoFAB community editing strategy overview. (C) Blue or white E. coli colonies resulting from synthetic … [Read more...]

Scientists from the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, North Carolina State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab use RNA-targeting CRISPR systems to drive genome editing across phage diversity. Image courtesy of Davian Ho: CRISPR-Cas13 creates an evolutionary bottleneck by targeting the RNA of diverse phages, allowing for edited phages (orange) to be specifically enriched. Bacterial viruses (bacteriophages or phages) are estimated to be among the most diverse and … [Read more...]

Peter Andeer, an m-CAFEs researcher, was recently highlighted for his work on the EcoBOT. The EcoBOT consists of a liquid handling robot with a custom growth chamber, imaging station, and a robot arm capable of moving EcoFABs, a customized device capable of supporting plants. This machine can execute experiments without requiring manual help and researchers will be able to use artificial intelligence to determine optimal experimental conditions. Learn more. … [Read more...]

Dawn Chiniquy, a project scientist with m-CAFEs, talks about her research and BioEPIC, a new facility currently being built at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTBEKB5PeYw Read one of Dawn's latest publications: Chiniquy, D., Barnes, E. M., Zhou, J., Hartman, K., Li, X., Sheflin, A., Pella, A., Marsh, E., Prenni, J., Deutschbauer, A. M., Schachtman, D. P., & Tringe, S. G. (2021). Microbial community field surveys reveal abundant pseudomonas … [Read more...]