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Looking beyond biotech companies for microbe-based biofuels

If you’re feeling ill trying to keep up with all the strange biofuel news these days, you might want to have some lab tests run. You could have a form of E. coli poisoning, a cyanobacteria outbreak, or maybe you accidentally ingested some highly toxic fire moss or perhaps bumped into a desert locust –… [Read More]

JGI’s Eddy Rubin comments on the $50K human genome

A Stanford University professor reported Monday that he has sequenced his entire genome in a few weeks for under $50,000 using a single machine. Six years ago, hundreds of researchers at the Human Genome Project completed the same task for $300 million. It took 13 years. “It’s continuing down the path to making it so… [Read More]

Sequencing a winemaker’s nemesis

Wineries have tried a number of different chemical mixtures to ward off infection, but none have proven fully effective. Phister believes the genome will provide answers on how brettanomyces survives the initial battle with saccharomyces, how it spreads so fast and, ultimately, on how to stop it. To decode the brettanomyces genome, Phister will work… [Read More]

JGI receives ARRA funding for new equipment

The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act approved by Congress in February. Saturday’s announcement marks the third and final round of funding for scientific research, instrumentation and laboratory infrastructure projects, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Of the $37.8 million awarded to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, $13.1 million is slated… [Read More]

JGI’s new head of informatics

Svilen Tzonev has been named head of informatics at Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif. He was formerly at Illumina, where he was the senior director of software, bioinformatics and IT and helped to develop and commercialize the Genome Analyzer system. Prior to that post, he was director of software and… [Read More]

Berkeley Lab’s Additional $40.3M ARRA Funding benefits DOE JGI

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will receive $40.3 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support research in biofuels, fusion energy and the nation’s power grid and to ensure scientists have state-of-the-art equipment for their investigations…. Specifically, the $40.3 million… [Read More]

“Bay Area national labs get new Recovery Act funding”

A $327 million initiative to bolster research and infrastructure programs at national laboratories is funneling more than $61 million to Bay Area facilities, the Department of Energy announced on Tuesday. Under the initiative, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory will get $37.8 million in federal Recovery Act funding, with $11 million designated for fusion energy research, $13.1 million… [Read More]

“Bay Area labs rake in stimulus”

California laboratories cleaned up in the Department of Energy’s latest stimulus announcement…. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will receive $40.3 million to fund research in biofuels, nuclear fusion and the electrical grid. At Lawrence Berkeley Lab, the $40.3 million will be divvied among the Joint Genome Institute, the accelerator and fusion research divisions, the Advanced Light… [Read More]

“Hiram College Stays on the Forefront of Genomics Education”

Understanding what a DNA sequence can tell you is not only crucial to modern medicine, but also to efforts in basic science, agriculture, bioenergy and industrial biotechnology. Providing students with the theoretical background is a first step, but nothing beats the opportunity to do it for real. Cheryl Kerfeld, Head of the Education Program for… [Read More]

JGI’s Cheryl Kerfeld teams with Hiram College for annotation education

Cheryl Kerfeld, a member of the Center’s Advisory Council and Head of the Education Program for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, and her colleagues have successfully launched a national program to involve undergraduates in annotating hundreds of new bacterial genomes. Hiram has benefited greatly from our collaborations with… [Read More]