|
|
|
|
Home * Background * Research Thrusts * Funding and Awards * Future Directions * Links * Contact Information
|
|
Future Directions While the DOE MGP and MCP focus primarily on environmental, energy, and biotechnological areas, it is worth noting here that there will be spinoff applications in medicine and agriculture as well. Potential biomedical benefits from comparative genomics studies include insights into the specialized, shared systems used by disease-causing organisms (pathogens) to disable or destroy human and animal cells. Comparing these genomic data with those of other microbes may help scientists understand a diverse range of pathogens that have remarkably similar methods for infiltrating organisms with protein-coding genes capable of sneaking past human, animal, or plant defense systems. These protein structures may provide ideal targets for developing completely new types of antibiotics for people, or new ways to protect animals and plants from disease. Thus the MCP will have great value to other agencies and academia, as well as to the private sector. While the MGP will continue to sequence microbial genomes of mission relevance to DOE, its objectives are to mine genomic information from sequenced microbes, improve tools for annotation and analysis of sequence data, develop high-throughput methods for determining gene function and gene expression, and develop methods for examining protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interaction. The MCP, arising from the MGP, has a bolder goal, to understand a microbial cell in its entirety. Information about the organization and functions of the parts of a simple cell, in its limited complexity, will relate directly to more complex cells and multicellular organisms. We also recognize that perhaps the most significant impact of these programs will come from the delivery of new science, new insights, and new approaches to the difficult challenges that DOE faces in carrying out its varied and demanding missions. The future promises many exciting developments as the fruits of the DOEinitiated microbial genome and microbial cell research programs mature. Already, we have become more appreciative of the extent of the microbial world's effect on Earth, realizing how little we know about microorganisms and wondering at their potential benefits to our worldif only we are wise enough to discover them. Much work lies ahead, from defining a roadmap for the MCP, with clearly delineated deliverables and benchmarks, to assembling the teams from DOE labs and academia, as well as the private sector, to move towards the goals of this ambitious program. This effort will begin in the near future with a series of workshops to define the specific components of the MCP and build the required roadmap. DOE already is planning to coordinate and partner with other interested federal agencies, and this will be important to ultimate success. But the ultimate goal, critically dependent on DOE facilities and technologies, as well as DOE's most valuable asset, her interdisciplinary teams of first-rate scientists, is to figure out just how a cell, in its entirety, actually works. Then biologists will have a set of genetic building blocks, and the real adventure can beginto use them intelligently for assembling useful and specific microbial tools to address the nation's needs. published 06/05/00 |
 Previous
Section |
Home |  Next
Section |
|---|
Home * Background * Research Thrusts * Funding and Awards * Future Directions * Links * Contact Information
Abridged Version * Complete Version * Microbial Genome Program * Human Genome Project Information
PDF version 1.2MB
Disclaimers * Webmaster * About the Website
Last modified: Wednesday, July 11, 2007
