The DOE-BER Genomic Science program supports basic research aimed at identifying the foundational principles that drive biological systems.
These principles govern the translation of the genetic code into integrated networks of proteins, enzymes, regulatory elements, and metabolite pools that
are the functional processes of organisms including microbes and multispecies communities relevant to DOE missions in energy and the environment.
To address the DOE mission in sustainable Bioenergy development, the Genomic Science program brings omics-driven tools of modern systems biology to bear on the challenges associated with microbial production of advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts.Developing an increased understanding of how biological systems function and translating that knowledge to enhance the production capabilities of microbes and plants forms the basis of DOE’s mission in sustainable Bioenergy.
To harness the biosynthetic processing power of the microbial world for advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts production, an expanded set of platform organisms with appropriate metabolic capabilities and stress tolerance characteristics with a suite of modification tools will need to be developed.
To foster this development, the DOE-BER Genomic Science program supports research aimed at understanding the principles that govern the functional properties of bioenergy relevant organisms at the genomic scale.
This endeavor is highly interdisciplinary, spanning multiple fields in biology, systems biology, chemical and metabolic engineering, and computational biology.