Researchers Funded by the DOE "Genomes to Life" Program Achieve
Important Advance in Developing Biological Strategies to Produce Hydrogen,
Sequester Carbon Dioxide and Clean up the Environment
See related press release.
November 13, 2003
Remarks by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham
Forrestal Auditorium, Washington, DC
Good morning.
Let me begin by welcoming Dr. Craig Venter, who is, I am sure, familiar to
everyone here today … and Dr. Hamilton Smith, a Nobel Prize winner and
Dr. Venter’s collaborator on the project we are going to discuss here
today.
Let me also welcome their colleagues from the Institute for Biological Energy
Alternatives, to the Department of Energy. I had the chance to visit your
lab earlier this year, so I am please to be able to host you this morning.
We are also joined by Undersecretary Bob Card, and the Director of the Office
of Science, Ray Orbach.
Thank you all for joining us.
Just three days ago, at the National Press Club, I announced the Department’s
20-year roadmap for future science facilities … facilities that will
ensure American primacy in science and technology well into the 21st Century.
Taken together, this prioritized list of 28 facilities and upgrades, will
lead to more world-class science, greater technological innovation, and advance
American competitiveness.
This is our blueprint for DOE science … and to a large extent it is
a blueprint for American science, as well.
And a significant piece of our scientific tradition here at the Department
concerns advancing the frontiers of biological science. Our facilities plan
will do that, as will the work by Craig Venter and his team that we are here
today to discuss.
I am pleased to announce an extraordinarily exciting development that is
a direct outgrowth of a successful effort that began 17 years ago when the
Department of Energy decided to map the human genome.
As a result of years of scientific research by many dedicated individuals,
scientists today possess the entire DNA sequences, or genomes, for life forms
ranging from human beings to the most basic single-celled microbes.
Armed with this knowledge, scientists at the Department of Energy believed
that it would be possible to alter microbes, by changing their genomes, and
create organisms with the biological abilities to produce hydrogen, accelerate
environmental clean up, and mitigate the long-term impacts of climate change
through sequestering carbon dioxide.
So just over a year ago, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science
partnered with Dr. Craig Venter, a leader in the effort to map the human genome,
and awarded the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives a three-year,
$3 million grant to reconstruct a bacterial genome from commercially available
DNA strands.
Because this pilot effort showed such promise so quickly, I traveled to Rockville,
Maryland last April to tour Dr. Venter’s facilities and announce an
additional $9 million grant for research to understand microbial communities
better and to develop new, biological methods to capture carbon dioxide and
produce hydrogen.
The success of this research thus far has been nothing short of amazing.
And today we are here to announce a critical accomplishment along this groundbreaking
research journey.
Dr. Venter and his team from the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives
have successfully created a phage, a harmless microscopic life form that infects
bacteria, by stitching together commercially available genetic materials …
approximately 6,000 DNA bases in size.
This is a remarkable achievement for two reasons: First, unlike the vast
majority of genomic research which starts with an existing organism and tweaks
it to become more useful, Dr. Venter created this phage from scratch. Second,
he and his team did this with almost perfect accuracy … in just a few
days… instead of the months previously required.
Although he has produced a phage and not our ultimate goal, a microbe that
is 100 to 1,000 times larger, this tremendous accomplishment brings us closer
to our goal of developing those microbes that can be used to address vital
Energy Department missions.
While we are not at the end of this research journey, this is a remarkable
achievement.
So just imagine, in the not-too-distant future, a colony of specially designed
microbes living within the emission-control systems of a coal-fired power
plant, consuming its pollution … and its carbon dioxide … makes
fossil fuels as clean an energy source as hydropower.
Or consider the possibility of employing microbes to radically reduce polluted
waters or to reduce the toxic effects of radioactive waste.
Let me give you one simple example illustrating that these dreams are not
scientific fantasy.
Our researchers have mapped the genome of a strange microbe, or bug, that
can live quite happily in an environment with one million times the radiation
a human cell could tolerate.
It’s been affectionately nicknamed “Conan the Bacterium”
by the press.
Now that we have sequenced this bug, we are ready to turn it to our own uses.
Our scientists have already shown that it is possible, using the work being
pioneered by the Department of Energy and Dr. Venter, to combine Conan’s
radiation resistance properties with the capabilities of other microbes. The
result is a new radiation-resistant microbe that can eat organic solvents
like those found at many contaminated Energy Department sites. We have had
great successes with Conan in the laboratory thus far, and are developing
a far better understanding of how that little bug can be resistant to so much
radiation—an asset that may prove valuable for a whole range of uses.
Biological tools like this can also be developed for nuclear waste clean-up
– creating a powerful tool that can deliver huge savings in time and
money.
We can make specialized microscopic bugs that eat carbon dioxide, others
that can get trees to grow in barren soil and hostile climates, and create
hydrogen for tomorrow’s fuel cell vehicles.
The benefits of our microbial research are very real.
And as we push the frontiers of scientific discovery, we are looking at all
the benefits that will flow from this research, including those that extend
far beyond Department of Energy missions.
For example, this research can yield important benefits:
* in medicine, by enabling the development of better vaccines and safer
strategies for gene therapy;
* in agriculture, through improved crop yields, better disease resistance,
and improved strategies for combating agricultural diseases;
* and even in homeland security, by providing an enhanced ability to detect
and defeat potential biothreat agents.
The potential for this research to revolutionize our future is enormous.
Human beings have always been explorers – always striving to discover
new things and investigate new frontiers to expand our horizons and improve
our lives.
It’s been that way for all of human history – from the very earliest
days of developing tools and harnessing the properties of fire, up until today,
as sophisticated technologies allow us to peer outward to the cosmos or inward
to unlock the mysteries of the atom and the tiniest, most fundamental building
blocks of life itself.
This microbial research – looking at the most basic molecular-level
process of nature -- offers tremendous promise for a safer, stronger, healthier
and more secure world.
In fact, I am so optimistic about the success of our mission, and the benefits
that will flow from it, that I am creating a special subcommittee of the Energy
Department’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee
to recommend ways and accelerate this research and identify the full range
of potential benefits, not only in our energy missions, but in other areas
of vital importance to all mankind.
This committee will be composed of the best minds in the field. I have appointed
Dr. Ray Gesteland, Vice President for Research and Professor of Genetics at
the University of Utah, to chair this committee and I have ask him report
to me with their recommendations by March 12, 2004.
I look forward to their findings.
The Department of Energy launched our Genomes to Life program in July 2002
to develop new knowledge about how microorganisms can benefit all of us in
ways that go beyond medical applications.
The success of that program exceeded our wildest expectations.
Today, we are continuing that journey of discovery as we explore opportunities
to apply the fruits of the human genome program to a vast array of new purposes.
The research results we celebrate today stand on the shoulders of discoveries
achieved precisely because the Department of Energy was willing to take the
risk and begin a program in gene sequencing nearly two decades ago.
We are proud of that tradition and legacy.
We believe that our current Genomes to Life research investments offer enormous
promise for meeting the energy and security challenges of this nation.
Thank you. It is now my pleasure to introduce Dr. Craig Venter.
After his remarks, Dr. Venter and I will be glad to stay for a few minutes
and answer questions.
Press Release R-03-265
