Biological and Environmental Sciences Directorate

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Awards and Achievements

Science features poplar gene sequencing

A team of more than 100 researchers, led by ORNL’s Gerald Tuskan and Daniel Rokhsar of the Joint Genome Institute, completed the gene sequence for the black cottonwood tree, the first effort to sequence the genome of a woody plant. Other team members at ORNL are Lee Gunter, Udaya Kalluri, and Tongming Yin.

An article describing the research was featured on the cover of the September 15 issue of Science magazine (313, pp. 1596–1603). A news article in the same issue (p. 1556) referred to black cottonwoods as “the lab rats of the tree world” because they have a small genome amenable to genetic manipulation and because they grow quickly and thus provide quick results. As a member of the poplar genus, the black cottonwood is a representative of trees prized commercially as a source of lumber and paper pulp and as a potential source of biomass. Further research is expected to improve the ability to use trees as a renewable resource, refine carbon-storage strategies, and aid in the study of global climate change.

Jeremy Smith appointed the first Governor’s Chair in JIBS

Internationally recognized biophysicist Jeremy Smith was the first appointee to a University of Tennessee– ORNL Governor’s Chair position. His appointment is in the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Biological Sciences.

Smith previously was the chair of Computational Molecular Biophysics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. His research interests involve understanding biological molecules such as proteins using computer simulation and neutron scattering. His research is interdisciplinary, involving chemistry, physics, computational science, and biology. A leading expert in applying neutron scattering to important biological questions, he will be among the first scientists to perform research using the Spallation Neutron Source.

The Governor’s Chair program is designed to attract top scientists to four UT-ORNL joint institutes. Governor’s Chair scientists have joint appointments as tenured UT faculty and distinguished ORNL research staff.

Gerald Tuskan is JGI lead scientist

Gerald Tuskan of ORNL was named lead scientist for the Laboratory Science Program (LSP) of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), of which ORNL is a member laboratory.

Under Tuskan’s leadership, the LSP worked to identify a list of candidate organisms for sequencing (i.e., microbes and plants). The soybean sequence was approved as the first large-scale LSP project because of its unique seed chemical composition. It is one of 15 plant genomes to be sequenced in the next 3 years. An LSP draft proposal plan and white papers were developed for large and small sequencing projects.

Tuskan participated in several JGI LSP planning meetings and in a JGI review, visited all five core laboratories, and scheduled visits to other labs, such as Argonne and Brookhaven, to promote LSP. He also met with the ORNL community.

In addition, ORNL increased its involvement in JGI, proposing several successful JGI–MGP (Microbial Genome Program) sequencing projects (e.g., Leptospirillum, Thermoanaerobacterium, Populus endosymbionts).

Gary Sayler named JIBS director

Gary S. Sayler has been appointed the first director of the Joint Institute for Biological Sciences (JIBS), established by the University of Tennessee and ORNL. He will lead the development of the research and development program at JIBS, including staffing, expanding the funding base, and establishing collaborations between ORNL and UT and with other research institutions worldwide. Sayler was Beaman Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology at UT before being named to the JIBS post.

JIBS is one of four state-funded ORNL–UT joint institutes. Construction on the JIBS facility on ORNL’s west campus began in summer 2006.

The Institute will focus on three core research areas, biology, energy, and health. Its objective is to advance science and technology for a better understanding of complex biological systems and their relationship with human health and the environment.

Davison elected AIMBE Fellow and receives Charles D. Scott Award

Brian Davison has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He was inducted as a Fellow at the Annual AIMBE Meeting at the National Academy of Sciences. The election was based on his many distinguished contributions to the field as well as his demonstrated interest, concern, and involvement with critical issues affecting medical and biological engineering.

he Charles D. Scott Award for Contributions to the Field of Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals was presented to Brian Davison in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the field as a whole and to the annual Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals. The award cites his innovation in fundamental and applied biotechnology, insight into bioprocessing fundamentals, and commitment to facilitate commercialization of products from renewable resources.

In 20 years at ORNL, Davison has conducted biotechnology research in various areas, including bioconversion of renewable resources, nonaqueous biocatalysis, systems analysis of microbes, biofiltration of volatile organic compounds, mixed cultures, immobilization of microbes and enzymes, metal biosorption, and extractive fermentations. His work has resulted in more than 90 publications and six patents. He co-chaired the fifteenth to twenty-sixth Symposia on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals and served as the editor of Proceedings in Applied iochemistry and Biotechnology from 1994 through 2005.

Bogard is Distinguished Texas State Alumnus

James S. Bogard received the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Texas State Alumni Association in October. Texas State University–San Marcos is the largest campus in the Texas State University system and the sixth-largest in the state.
Bogard obtained his B.S. degree in chemistry from Texas State.

Patent awarded for implant sensors

A patent for a method of implanting microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for monitoring orthopedic implants was awarded to Thomas Thundat of ORNL and Rick Komistek of the University of Tennessee. Thundat, a pioneer in MEMS technologies, is an ORNL corporate fellow; Komistek is a professor of biomedical engineering and a leading musculoskeletal researcher.

The invention has been licensed to Zimmer, Inc., of Warsaw, Indiana, a market leader in orthopedic implants.

Complete joint replacements for knees and hips are widely used, but wear limits the useful lifetime of these devices. Current research in this area is aimed at extending the usable lifetimes of orthopedic implants through better materials design, simulation models, and advanced techniques for modular replacement of worn friction surfaces. To extend device lifetime, makers of implants need to be able to monitor the wear forces and loads on them. The ORNL invention enables accurate measurement of wear and force parameters that can be incorporated into research and clinical implants for continuous or periodic assessment. It can incorporate different sensor types to monitor surrounding physiological parameters and sense the presence of infection. The invention is suitable for use with many different implant types—including artificial knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow joints—and may find use in applications where bone is involved.

ORNL toxicity guidelines published as book chapter

An ORNL team made up of Annetta Watson (team leader), Dennis Opresko, and Bob Young of the Toxicology and Hazard Assessment Group have authored a book chapter documenting the team’s development of chemical warfare agent exposure guidelines for community emergency preparedness (acute exposure guideline levels and reference doses). “Cholinesterase Inhibitors as Chemical Warfare Agents: Community Preparedness Guidelines,” is Chapter 5 in Toxicology of Organophosphate and Carbamate Compounds, published by Elsevier/Academic Press in North America and Europe. The guidelines developed by the ORNL team, which currently are used by civilian regulatory and emergency response personnel, will be more readily available to user communities as a part of the book.

Researchers use light to trap, transport proteins

Three ORNL researchers are among the authors of a paper outlining a new method of using a beam of light to trap protein molecules and make them dance in space. The paper earned a place in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition and appeared in Applied Physical Sciences, Biophysics.

The authors include Thomas Thundat, Gil Brown, and Bruce Warmack of ORNL; Nathan Lewis of the California Institute of Technology; and Dean Hageman, James Harkins IV, and Chuck Witkowski of Protein Discovery, Inc.

The technique, photoelectrophoretic localization and transport (PELT), involves shining a highly focused beam of light on semiconductor material and using electric fields to move the proteins. A photocurrent focused at the illuminated areas of the semiconductor creates force-field traps. PELT is useful for separating, concentrating, and analyzing proteins quickly with high sensitivity and selectivity. Researchers using it can steer DNA or other biomolecules for transport in three dimensions and separate them according to size and isoelectric point. The technology has applications for medical diagnostics and as a discovery tool for investigating photoinduced effects of a semiconductor-liquid interface.

Biosphere Monitoring Symposium at AAAS

Stan Wullschleger of ORNL was the organizer of “Biosphere
Monitoring and Ecosystem Forecasts: Sensing the Pulse of the Planet,” a symposium presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to explore the use of monitoring and modeling tools to track how climate change is affecting ecosystems. Tom Wilbanks of ORNL was the co-organizer.

The symposium highlighted sensing technologies, biosphere monitoring platforms, and ecosystem forecasting models that can be useful in predicting the impact of climate change on terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. As natural resources are increasingly compromised by local, regional, and global pressures, ecologists are challenged to detect environmental change across all scales and to help policy makers integrate the knowledge gained into a framework that includes social and political issues. The symposium focused on the need to develop and use integrated Earthobserving systems to monitor the planet and forecast ecological change.

Coupled Carbon-Cycle Symposium at AAAS

Wilfred Post, David Erickson, and Anthony King of ORNL organized the symposium “Advancing Coupled Carbon Cycle—Climate Models: Current Progress, Future Challenges” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting for 2006. Speakers in the symposium presented concepts and algorithm developments in coupling terrestrial and marine carbon biogeochemistry with the earth’s climate system to advance coupled carbon-climate modeling capabilities to meet the requirements of predicting climate change.

Research was presented that involved collaboration among climate scientists, terrestrial ecologists, ocean biologists and geochemists, and computer scientists. These scientific findings and new research approaches outlined new directions in developing an understanding of problems to be solved in addressing potential future climate change resulting from human and natural perturbations to the global carbon cycleclimate system. Speakers included Anthony King and Forrest Hoffman (ORNL), Bala Govindasamy (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Atul Jain (University of Illinois), Peter Thornton (National Center for Atmospheric Research), Akihiko Ito (Ecosystem Change Research Program –– i.e., the Japanese Earth Simulator, Yokohama, Japan), and Christian Reick (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg

Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals

The 28th annual “Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals,” hosted by ORNL’s Jonathan Mielenz, attracted almost 500 participants from 24 countries. The 5-day symposium, held in Nashville, was one in a series of symposia focusing on improving the science, technology, and economics of producing fuels and chemicals through biotechnology. It was held under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and managed by the Society for Industrial Microbiology.

The biotechnology symposia provide a forum for experts from around the world to gather and discuss research breakthroughs and opportunities for commercialization of bioenergy technologies. More than 62 talks and 255 posters were presented. Of those attending, 145 were from outside the United States and 38% were from industries.

SiezAlert seizes R&D 100 Award

SeizAlert, a wearable device that alerts the wearer that an epileptic seizure is coming, was a winner of a 2006 R&D 100 Award. Because of the many millions of people affected by epilepsy, many of whom cannot be treated successfully to stop seizures from occurring, SeizAlert has the potential for extensive application.

Lee Hively, Vladimir Protopopescu, Kara Kruse, and Nancy Munro developed the technology. Hercules Development Corporation has licensed it for commercialization.

SeizAlert uses software to conduct advanced real-time analysis of brain waves transmitted wirelessly from small electrodes worn on the scalp. It can forewarn epilepsy patients up to 4.5 hours before seizures occur, allowing them to take measures such as taking medications, avoiding activities that could become hazardous in a seizure, lying down, or contacting a doctor. The underlying technology could also be used to predict heart arrhythmias, track breathing problems, and detect the onset of septic shock.

SiezAlert was also honored in 2006 with a Federal Laboratory Consortium, Southeast Region, Excellence in Technology Transfer Award.

100 Award goes to Nanofermentation

Nanofermentation,™ a new approach for producing extremely fine, highly crystalline powders of various materials, received an R&D 100 Award recognizing it as one of the best technologies of 2006. Lonnie Love, Tommy Phelps, Adam Rondinone, Yu Roh, Chuanlun Zhang, and Ji-Won Moon of ORNL, and Bob Lauf, formerly of ORNL, are the developers.

The process works at or near room temperature using conventional industrial equipment, straightforward fermentation processes, and naturally occurring bacteria. The bacteria synthesize large quantities of tailored nanoparticles, which can be used in applications such as magnetic media, xerographic toner, catalysts, pigments, water treatments, ferrofluids, and coatings.

The inventors hope the availability of a low-cost method of mass-producing highly uniform, size-controlled (5- to 100- nm) magnetite nanoparticles will stimulate the development of new applications and help realize the potential of the field of nanotechnology.

Nanofermentation also received one of R&D Magazine’s inaugural MICRO/ NANO 25 awards.

Annetta Watson receives Life Career Award

ORNL researcher Annetta Watson was presented a Life Career Award at the Twenty- Second Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediment, and Water, at the University of Massachusetts– Amherst.

The award was presented for scientific accomplishment and technical services to the government and its agencies and cites Watson's career providing sound technical support and critical insight to the establishment of general public, workplace and deployment exposure limits for many toxic compounds, including
chemical warfare agents.

The annual conference is presented by the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center and the School of Public Health, University of Massachusetts–Amherst.

See More in the Awards Archive