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The Genomic Science Program is in the DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research Program.


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Program Overview

About the DOE Biological and Environmental Research Program

Mission
Advance world-class biological and environmental research and provide scientific user facilities to support Department of Energy missions in scientific discovery and innovation, energy security, and environmental responsibility.

Approach

  • Understand complex biological and environmental systems across many spatial and temporal scales.
  • Leverage diverse scientific insights by coupling theory, observations, experiments, models, and simulations.
  • Support interdisciplinary research that engages scientists from national laboratories, academia, and industry.

Research Divisions

Biological Systems Science Division
BSSD aims to achieve a predictive understanding of complex biological systems with potential use in bioenergy, carbon cycling and biosequestration, and biogeochemistry.

BSSD research activities include

  • Using genomics and systems biology to understand plants and microbes.
  • Supporting DOE Bioenergy Research Centers to provide transformational breakthroughs in cellulosic biofuels.
  • Developing real-time, high-resolution technologies for analyzing dynamic biological processes.

Climate and Environmental Sciences Division
CESD aims to achieve a predictive understanding of climate change, ecosystem response to climate change, and contaminant fate and transport in the subsurface.

CESD research activities include

  • Resolving the greatest uncertainties in climate change.
  • Improving the world’s most powerful climate models.
  • Providing the science to inform environmental remediation strategies.
  • Working to understand carbon cycling in terrestrial systems.

DOE Mission-Inspired Science: Addressing Critical National Needs

Sustainable Biofuels
To support the development of biofuels as major sustainable national energy resources, the DOE Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program is using the power of genomics and systems biology to study microbes, fungi, and plants important to solving energy challenges.
Climate Science
To inform decision making about energy use and climate change, BER is studying the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on Earth’s climate and biosphere.
Subsurface Biogeochemistry
To address some of the nation’s most difficult environmental remediation challenges, BER is working to understand and predict contaminant mobility in the subsurface.
Biology-Physics Interface
To develop technologies that are transferable to diverse applications, BER is exploring research at the interface of biological and physical sciences.

DOE User Facilities and Bioenergy Research Centers

DOE Bioenergy Research Centers

Bringing together top scientists from multiple disciplines, DOE BER established three Bioenergy Research Centers in 2007 to deliver high-risk, high-return breakthroughs in cellulosic biofuel production. DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads the BioEnergy Science Center in Tennessee. The University of Wisconsin- Madison leads the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley DOE Bioenergy Research Centers National Laboratory leads the Joint BioEnergy Institute in California. Each center is using genomics and advanced analytical technologies to understand (1) how to make grasses, wood, and other cellulosic materials easier to break down into sugars, (2) which enzymes degrade biomass most efficiently, and (3) how to advance the microbial production of ethanol and other gasoline-replaceable fuels from sugars.

DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI)

Sequencing more than 800 billion DNA base pairs per year, JGI in Walnut Creek, California, provides state-of-the-science capabilities for genome sequencing and analysis. With more than 1300 worldwide collaborators on active projects, JGI is the preeminent facility for sequencing plants, microbes, and microbial communities that are foundational to energy and environmental research.

DOE Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)

By integrating experimentation with supercomputing, EMSL in Richland, Washington, enables the study of environmental challenges at the molecular level. EMSL has helped thousands of researchers use a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to solve important challenges in biological interactions and dynamics, subsurface science, and interactions at the interfaces of natural and engineered materials.

DOE ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF)

Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, ACRF provides highly instrumented ground stations at various locations, mobile resources, and aerial vehicles to continuously measure cloud and aerosol properties. ACRF measurements have set the standard for long-term climate research observations and provide an unparalleled resource for examining atmospheric processes and evaluating climate model performance.

Contact BER

David Thomassen, 301-903-9817
Chief Scientist

Click Here for Expanded Contact List

BER Staff Email Addresses: firstname.lastname@science.doe.gov

Now Featuring

BER Advisory Committee Long-Term Vision Report [12/10]


BER Program Overview [10/11]


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  2. Reports
  3. Funding
  4. Research

Genomic Science-Related BER Research Highlights

  • Protein Complex Within Plant Cell Wall Associated with Secondary Cell-Wall Synthesis [Nov 30, 2011]
    The plant cell wall polysaccharide pectin is often associated with the tissue softening that occu [more...]
  • Designing Low Lignin, High Biomass Yielding Plants [Nov 28, 2011]
    The major barrier to the efficient conversion of biomass from plant feedstocks to biofuels is bre [more...]
  • Microbial Conversion of Switchgrass to Multiple Drop-In Biofuels [Nov 28, 2011]
    The low efficiency and high cost of enzymes used to break down plant material into sugars remains [more...]
  • How do Microbes Adapt to Diverse Environments? [Nov 22, 2011]
    Earth's microbes live in staggeringly diverse environments, colonizing habitats with extremes of [more...]
  • Permafrost Microbes Could Make Impacts of Arctic Warming Worse [Nov 06, 2011]
    In Earth’s Arctic regions, frozen soils (permafrost) sequester an estimated 1.6 trillion metric t [more...]
  • More BER Research Highlights »