To exploit the boundless promise of energy technologies and shed light on their consequences to public health and the environment, the Biological and Environmental Research program of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Health and Environmental Research (OHER) has engaged in a variety of multidisciplinary research activities: 
 
• Establishing the world's first Human Genome Program. 
•  Developing advanced medical diagnostic tools and treatments for human disease. 
•  Assessing the health effects of radiation. 

National User Facilities 

Dedicated biomedical resources, such as those maintained by BER at several DOE laboratories, are available at little or no charge. These resources enable scientists to gain an understanding of relationships between biological structures and their functions, study disease processes, develop new pharmaceuticals, and conduct basic research in molecular biology and environmental processes.

 DOE is carrying forward Congressional mandates that began with its predecessors, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Agency:

Contribute to a Healthy Citizenry 
 
• Develop innovative technologies for tomorrow's biomedical sciences. 
• Provide the basis for individual risk assessments by  determining the human genome's fine structure by the year 2005. 
• Conduct research into advanced medical technologies and radiopharmaceuticals. 
• Build and support national user facilities for determining biological structure, and ultimately function, at the molecular and cellular level.

Predict the effects of energy production and its use on the regional and global environment by acquiring data and developing the necessary understanding of environmental processes. 

Contribute to Environmental Cleanup 

Conduct fundamental research to establish a better scientific basis for remediating contaminated sites.

Radioisotopes developed for medicine and medical imaging are being merged with current knowledge in biology and genetics to discover new ways of diagnosing and treating cancer and other disorders, detecting genes in action, and understanding normal development and function of human organ systems. 

• Radioactive molecules used in medical imaging for positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow noninvasive diagnosis, monitoring, and exploration of human disorders and their treatments. 
• Isotopes and other tracers of brain activity are being used to explore drug addiction, the effects of smoking, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia. 
• Technetium-99m is used to diagnose diseases of the kidney, liver, heart, brain, and other organs in about 13 million patients per year. 
• Striking successes have been achieved using charged atomic particles to treat thyroid diseases, pituitary tumors, and eye cancer, among other disorders.

Genome Projects 

A legacy of DOE research on genetic effects paved the way for the world's first Human Genome Program. Now new genomic technologies are being applied to environmental cleanup through the DOE Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Research and Microbial Genome programs, healthcare and risk assessment, and such other national priorities as industrial processes and agriculture. 
 

BER studies have become the foundation for laws and standards that protect the population, including workers exposed to radiological sources: 

• Guidelines for the safe use of diagnostic X rays and radiopharmaceuticals.
• Safety standards for the presence of radionuclides in food and drinking water.
• Radiation-detection systems and dosimetry techniques.

Finding a Link Between 
DNA Damage and Cancers 
Studies of DNA damage have uncovered similar mechanisms at work in damage caused by radiation exposure, X rays, ultraviolet light, and cancer-causing chemicals. A screening test for such chemicals is now one of the first hurdles a new compound must clear on its way to regulatory and public acceptance. 

Tracking the Regional and Global Movement of Pollutants 

BER research helped to establish the earliest and most authoritative monitoring network in the world to detect airborne radioisotopes. The use of atmospheric tracers has led to the improved ability to predict the dispersion of pollutants. 

Understanding Global Change 

Important achievements in environmental research have led to enhanced capabilities in studying global change, including more accurate predictions of global and regional climate changes induced by increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. 

Creating a New Science of Ecology 

BER achievements in using radioactive tracers to follow the movements of animals, routes of chemicals through food chains, decomposition of forest detritus, together with the program's introduction of computer simulations, created the new field of radioecology.