Physical Biosciences Division One Stop
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The Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU) is a state-of-the-art facility for testing and developing the next generation of biofuels technologies. It is available to Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs), researchers supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), academic institutions, non-profit research organizations, and private companies. The APBDU provides its collaborators with the ability to produce demonstration quantities of biofuels from biomass such as grasses, wood, and agricultural residues. The site is equipped for operations on a 24/7 basis relating to pretreatment, fermentation, downstream processing, and rigorous analytical characterizations. The ABPDU is funded by the Office of Biomass Program within DOE’s Office of Energy and Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub—a research effort built on the premises that a critcal mass of creative scientists and engineers working side by side can accomplish more, faster, than researchers working separately, and that a proactive approach to managing and conducting research is essential. Led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and a select group of universities, JCAP will involve scientists and engineers nationwide. JCAP will keep the United States at the forefront of solar-fuel research
The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is a
San Francisco Bay Area scientific partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
and including the Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), the University
of California (UC) campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution
for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). JBEI’s
primary scientific mission is to advance the development of the next
generation of biofuels – liquid fuels derived from the solar energy
stored in plant biomass. JBEI is one of three new U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs).
The Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) is one of
three Helios projects in which researchers from
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are working to develop fuels from sunlight.
The other two complementary projects, which focus exclusively on biofuels, are the Energy
Biosciences Institute (EBI), centered at the University of California at Berkeley and funded by the oil
company BP, and the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI, see above) in Emeryville, California. JBEI, a partnership
among LBNL, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories, and several universities, is
one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the U.S. Department of Energy.
While these two projects research crops and enzymes associated with conversion of cellulose to fuels, SERC sidesteps plant biology completely. In this process, solar cells (photovoltaics, or PVs) collect sunlight and supply electrical currents that are used to drive fuel-forming chemical reactions. As envisioned, the chemical reactors convert water and carbon dioxide into a high-energy-density fuel that can be stored, transported, and used for transportation or other applications. The entire process can take place in a single reactor (termed a photoelectrochemical, or PEC, cell) that collects sunlight and is the site of the reactions involving water and ambient carbon dioxide.
The Virtual
Institute of Microbial Stress and Survival (VIMSS) supports
an integrated program to understand the ability of bacteria and other
microogranisms to respond to and survive external stresses.The inaugural
project for VIMSS is a $36.6 million effort for Genomes to Life, a
major initiative in systems biology from the Department of Energy’s
Office of Science. For this project, VIMSS scientists will describe
and predict the stress responses of microbes to environmental conditions
in metal and radionuclide contaminated waste sites. A major goal of
the project is to provide the scientific breakthroughs to accelerate
this process at a greatly reduced cost. In doing so, the researchers
aim to build a quantitative understanding of the structure and action
of these microbes and how they can be redesigned for exciting new
purposes.
The Computational
Crystallography Initiative (CCI) is part of the Physical
Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The
focus of the initiative is the development of computational tools
for high-throughput structure determination. One of CCI's primary
goals is the creation of a novel software package called PHENIX (Python-based
Hierarchical Environment for Integrated Xtallography). This software
is being developed as part of an international collaboration, funded
by NIH and headed by the CCI group. Those currently involved are:
Tom Terwilliger (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Randy Read (University
of Cambridge, U.K.), Tom Ioerger and Jim Sacchettini (Texas A&M
University).
The National Center
for X-Ray Tomography is a joint effort between the Univeristy
of California, San Francisco and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to
establish a first-of-its-kind x-ray microscope to perform “cat scans”
of biological cells, and other unprecedented capabilities for cell and molecular
biology studies. The new microscopy resource also promises a better understanding
of human diseases at the molecular level and possibly new discoveries for
Genomic Science Program, in close collaboration with UC Berkeley and other universities
and national laboratories, is applying its expertise and resources to achieve
the goals of the The U.S. Department of Energy's Genomic Science program (formerly Genomics:GTL and
Genomes to Life). Using genomic data and high-throughput technologies, we're
studying proteins encoded by genomes to explore the diverse natural capabilities
in microbes. In doing so, we will help solve larger DOE challenges in energy
production, environmental cleanup, and global climate change. The Physical
Biosciences Division has four research projects in this area, and is poised
for a key role in the future of the Genomic Science program.
The Berkeley
Center for Structural Biology is located within the Advanced
Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The BCSB
is a national user facility serving over 750 scientists, representing
160 different research groups. The Center has eight beamlines optimized
for macromolecular protein crystallography constructed and operated
by several Participating Research Teams (PRTs), funded in part by
DOE/OBER and NIH/NIGMS with contributions from numerous academic and
industrial groups. There are six tuneable-wavelength MAD beamlines
capable of phasing structures as large as the 70S ribosome. Crystal
automounters on three beamlines to facilitate rapid screening of crystals
as part of drug design and structural genomics programs.
