Systems Biology for Energy and the Environment

The Genomic Science program pursues fundamental research to understand, predict, manipulate, and design plant and microbial systems for innovations in renewable energy, insights into environmental processes, and biotechnological breakthroughs supporting the U.S. bioeconomy.

DOE Announces $178 Million to Advance Bioenergy Technology

Sep 14, 2022
37 Projects Will Develop New Technologies That Engineer Plants and Microbes into Bioenergy and Improve Carbon Storage
View more

DOE Office of Science Now Accepting Applications for Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Awards Solicitation 2

Aug 18, 2022
Applications are due 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. SCGSR application assistance workshops will be held on September 19, 2022 and October 20, 2022.
View more

FUNDING: DOE SBIR/STTR Programs FY 2023 Phase I Release 1

Aug 8, 2022
Applications for DOE's SBIR/STTR programs FY 2023 Phase I Release 1 due Tuesday, October 11, 2022, at 11:59pm ET.
View more

Biological and Environmental Research Leadership Transition

Jul 6, 2022
Dr. Sharlene Weatherwax retires after 12 years at BER's helm
View more

BER-Funded Scientist Jennifer Pett-Ridge wins 2021 E.O. Lawrence Award

Jun 21, 2022
The Lawrence Award recognizes mid-career U.S. scientists and engineers who have advanced new research and scientific discovery
View more

JGI 25th Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting

Jun 20, 2022
DOE JGI convenes this annual gathering of leaders from diverse disciplines to highlight how they are addressing the world’s most pressing energy and environmental challenge
View more

Two GSP Scientists Selected as Recipients of DOE’s 2022 Early Career Research Program Award

Jun 8, 2022
DOE selected 83 early career scientists to receive $110 million in funding for research.
View more

More News

Bioenergy

Providing the foundational genomics-based knowledge needed to produce and deconstruct renewable plant biomass and convert it to sustainable fuels, chemicals, and other bioproducts.

Biosystems Design

Accelerating the ability to securely design, build, and control plants and microbes for beneficial purposes such as clean energy, biomaterials, and carbon sequestration.

Environmental Microbiome

Developing a process-level understanding of how plant and soil microbial communities impact the cycling and fate of carbon, nutrients, and contaminants in the environment.

Enabling Capabilities

Computing and Cyberinfrastructure

Open-access and integrated computational and bioinformatic capabilities tailored to large-scale data science for research on plants, microbes, and their communities

Biomolecular Characterization and Imaging Science

Imaging and measurement technologies enabling visualization of the relationships among biomolecules, cellular compartments, and higher-order biological systems

DOE Scientific User Facilities

Integrated capabilities across user facilities and resources for genome sequencing and analysis, DNA design and synthesis, molecular sciences, structural biology, and imaging

Bioenergy Research Centers

Four Bioenergy Research Centers—each led by a DOE national laboratory or top university—take distinctive approaches to the common goal of improving and scaling up advanced biofuel and bioproduct production processes.

The multidisciplinary teams are tackling fundamental science challenges in:

Sustainability
Feedstock development
Deconstruction and separation
Conversion

Their research is identifying the genomic underpinnings of complex plant traits in promising bioenergy crops and streamlining deconstruction processes to funnel plant components into defined process streams. The centers are designing new pathways in microbes to convert plant biomass to a range of fuels, chemicals, and bioproducts. They also are developing the agronomic understanding needed to sustainably manage and produce bioenergy crops on marginal lands.