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
BER Researcher to Give Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Lecture
Nov 13, 2024
Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series Features Bioenergy Researcher Gerald Tuskan
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Genomics-Enabled Understanding and Advancing Knowledge on Plant Gene Function(s)
Oct 15, 2024
Funding Announcement for Bioenergy Crop Design
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Department of Energy Announces up to $500 Million for Basic Research to Advance the Frontiers of Science
Oct 1, 2024
Annual funding announcement covers Biological and Environmental Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Fusion Energy Sciences, Nuclear Physics, and more.
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Outstanding Graduate Students Selected for Department of Energy Office of Science Research Program
Sep 30, 2024
62 PhD students from 24 states have been selected for the prestigious DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research program.
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DOE Awards $138 Million to 91 Early Career Scientists
Sep 10, 2024
Funding for the Early Career Research Program Supports the Next Generation of America’s Scientific Workforce
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DOE’s RENEW Initiative to Support Five Pathway Summer Schools
Sep 4, 2024
The RENEW initiative will support 165 students from underrepresented and underserved groups.
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DOE Announces $36 Million to Support Energy-Relevant Research in Underrepresented Regions of America
Aug 26, 2024
DOE announced $36 million in funding for 39 research projects in 19 states via the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
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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.
