Inter-Facility Collaboration: Overarching Challenges and Opportunities Identified Through the “Genomes to Structure and Function” Virtual Workshop
Authors:
Paul Adams1, Hassina Biheux2, Andrzej Joachimiak3,4, Scott Lea5, Sean McSweeney6, Karolina Michalska3, Irina Novikova5, Hugh O’Neill2, Corie Ralston1, Ritimukya Sarangi7, Wuxian Shi6, Susannah Tringe1, Soichi Wakatsuki7, Yang Yang6, and Yasuo Yoshikuni1
Institutions:
1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; 2Oak Ridge National Laboratory; 3 Argonne National Laboratory; 4University of Chicago; 5Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; 6Brookhaven National Laboratory; and 7SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Goals
The goal of this workshop was to explore the need for the DOE Biological and Environmental Research (BER) community to combine genomic, functional, and structural approaches to advance their research.
Abstract
The goal of BER is to achieve a predictive understanding of complex biological, Earth, and environmental systems with the aim of advancing the nation’s energy and infrastructure security. To pursue this goal, collaborations among experts in diverse research areas that lead to multidisciplinary projects are indispensable. The roles of DOE’s user facilities, which offer unique and powerful resources for such research projects, are evolving; and expectations for the facilities are increasing. To respond to users’ needs, the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) initiated the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program in 2014. This collaboration has grown into a successful program, advancing more than 100 multidisciplinary projects to date. Similarly, new interfacility collaborations among the JGI, EMSL, and user resources for BER structural biology and imaging at the Basic Energy Sciences program’s synchrotron and neutron facilities are becoming essential for cutting-edge transdisciplinary science. To explore the need for the BER research community to combine genomic, functional, and structural approaches to advance their research, team members hosted the “Genomes to Structure and Function” virtual workshop, focusing on molecular structures, intracellular organization, material synthesis and decomposition, imaging the rhizosphere, and cellular organization. This workshop identified three major overarching challenges and opportunities: science, technology development, and interfacility integration challenges. The team recently completed the report summarizing these findings. On behalf of the organizing committee, here is the summary of these findings.
References
Genomes to Structure and Function workshop report
Funding Information
Argonne National Laboratory is operated by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-SC0012704.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC05-00OR45678. Center for Structural Molecular Biology is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under FWP ERKP291
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is managed by the Regents of the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH1123.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC05-76RL01830
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is managed by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515.