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.
News & Funding
DOE Job Opportunity – Associate Director, Office of Biological and Environmental Research
Jan 24, 2023
Seeking early career researchers. Applications due by February 7
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Applications for the 2023 NMDC Ambassador Program Are Now Open
Jan 19, 2023
Seeking early career researchers. Applications due by February 7
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BER Advisory Committee Releases Report on the International Standing of BER Research
Jan 10, 2023
Report benchmarks BER’s programmatic investments and science contributions and makes recommendations to realize emerging science opportunities.
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FUNDING: BER Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW)
Jan 9, 2023
Pre-applications for BER's RENEW program due Tuesday, February 21, 2023 by 5:00 pm ET.
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FUNDING: Funding for Accelerated Inclusive Research
Dec 16, 2022
DOE's Office of Science announces FAIR funding opportunity for FY 2023.
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FUNDING: Integrative Computational Tools for Systems Biology Research
Dec 5, 2022
DOE's Office of Science announces Early Career Research Program for FY 2023.
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FUNDING: Early Career Research Program
Nov 17, 2022
DOE's Office of Science announces Early Career Research Program for FY 2023.
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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.
Select BRC Highlights
Metabolically engineering oleaginous yeast to overproduce promising platform chemical
Mapping the genetic diversity of switchgrass to improve biomass yields
Engineering poplar with altered lignin composition and easier conversion to bioproducts
Comparing the economics of in planta versus microbial production of bioproducts
