U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 15-May-2013
The DOE Joint Genome Institute expands capabilities via new partnerships
Positioning itself to provide the most current technology and expertise to their users in order to address pressing energy and environmental scientific challenges, the DOE Joint Genome Institute announces six projects with which to launch the Emerging Technologies Opportunity Program. These new partnerships span the development of new scalable DNA synthesis technologies to the latest approaches to high throughput sequencing and characterization of single microbial cells from complex environmental samples.

DOE Office of Science

Public Release: 5-May-2013

Nature Methods
A new cost-effective genome assembly process
Genome assembly, the molecular equivalent of trying to put together a multi-million piece jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture on the cover of the box is, remains challenging due to the very large number of very small pieces, which must be assembled using current approaches. As reported May 5 online in the journal Nature Methods, a collaboration involving DOE JGI researchers has resulted in an improved and fully automated workflow for genome assembly.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 23-Apr-2013
Fertilizer that fizzles in a homemade bomb could save lives around the world
A Sandia engineer who trained US soldiers to avoid improvised explosive devices has developed a fertilizer that helps plants grow but can't detonate a bomb.

Public Release: 4-Apr-2013
Energy Department announces 5-year renewal of funding for Bioenergy Research Centers
The US Department of Energy today announced it would fund its three Bioenergy Research Centers for an additional five-year period, subject to continued congressional appropriations. The three Centers are the BioEnergy Research Center led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 2-Apr-2013
New instrument will quickly detect botulinum, ricin, other biothreat agents
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are developing a medical instrument that will be able to quickly detect a suite of biothreat agents, including anthrax, ricin, botulinum, shiga and SEB toxin. Sandia's work is funded by a recent grant -- nearly $4 million over four years -- from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 21-Mar-2013

DOE Joint Genome Institute's 8th Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting
DOE Joint Genome Institute 8th Annual Meeting on March 26-28, 2013
The 8th Annual Genomics of Energy and Environment Meeting of the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will be held at the Marriott in Walnut Creek on March 26-28, 2013.

Public Release: 19-Mar-2013

mBio
UMass Amherst researchers reveal mechanism of novel biological electron transfer
"For biologists, Geobacter's behavior represents a paradigm shift. It goes against all that we are taught about biological electron transfer, which usually involves electrons hopping from one molecule to another," Lovley says. "So it wasn't enough for us to demonstrate that the microbial nanowires are conductive and to show with physics the conduction mechanism, we had to determine the impact of this conductivity on the biology."

Office of Naval Research, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 13-Mar-2013

Nature Methods
Predictability: The brass ring for synthetic biology
DNA sequences and statistical models have been unveiled that greatly increase the reliability and precision by which microbes can be engineered.

Department of Energy Office of Science, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 7-Mar-2013

PLOS ONE
Illuminating fractures: X-ray imaging sheds new light on bone damage
Using cutting-edge X-ray techniques, Cornell University researchers have uncovered cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears repetitive stress over time, visualizing damage at smaller scales than previously observed. Their work could offer clues into how bone fractures could be prevented.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

Molecular Cell
Revealing the secrets of motility in archaea
The protein structure of the archaellum, the motor that propels many species of Archaea, the third domain of life, has been characterized for the first time by a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. A ring made of six identical proteins derives energy from hydrolyzing adenosine triphosate and uses this energy to drive shape changes, both assembling and rotating the archaellum's whiplike propeller.

National Institutes of Health, Max Planck Institute, Max Planck Society, Dutch Science Organization, US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 12-Feb-2013

Nature Methods
Nature Methods study: Using light to control cell clustering
A new study from engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, pairs light and genetics to give researchers a powerful new tool for manipulating cells. Results of the study, published in the journal Nature Methods, show how blue light can be used as a switch to prompt targeted proteins to accumulate into large clusters.

US Department of Energy/Office of Basic Energy

Public Release: 4-Feb-2013

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Scientists turn toxic by-product into biofuel booster
Scientists studying an enzyme that naturally produces alkanes, long carbon-chain molecules that could be a direct replacement for the hydrocarbons in gasoline, have figured out why the natural reaction typically stops after three to five cycles -- and devised a strategy to keep the reaction going. The work could renew interest in using the enzyme in bacteria, algae, or plants to produce biofuels that need no further processing.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 28-Jan-2013

Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences
New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization
A new way of looking at a cell's surface reveals the distribution of small molecules in the cell membrane, changing the understanding of its organization. A novel imaging study by researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Illinois and the National Institutes of Health revealed some unexpected relationships among molecules within cell membranes.

Public Release: 22-Jan-2013

International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal
Synchrotron infrared unveils a mysterious microbial community
A cold sulfur spring in Germany is the only place where archaea are known to dominate bacteria in a microbial community. How this unique community thrives and the lessons it may hold for understanding global carbon and sulfur cycles are beginning to emerge from research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, using the Advanced Light Source's Berkeley Synchrotron Infrared Structural Biology facility.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science