Participants of the University of Duisburg-Essen-Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Kick-Off Meeting held on February 27-28, 2024 in Berkeley, California. (Courtesy of Tanja Woyke)
A two-day kick-off meeting held at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) marked the visit of an esteemed interdisciplinary delegation from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Germany with the aim of intensifying collaborations in the fields of genomics, structural biology, bioimaging, and water research. The meeting involved key representatives from the ACTIVE SITES Research Center (ACSI), the Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU) of the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Research Center One Health Ruhr (OHR), and the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, and Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division at Berkeley Lab.
Building on the momentum of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between UDE and Berkeley Lab in 2022, the delegation from UDE familiarized themselves with the research programs and user facilities at Berkeley Lab. Commenting on the visit, JGI Director Nigel Mouncey expressed enthusiasm about the potential of this collaboration stating, “We already identified a lot of synergies. To bring together expertise of the involved institutions will give us the opportunity to advance unique scientific knowledge and address global challenges.”
During the workshop UDE and Berkeley Lab scientists discussed a diverse range of topics related to structural biology, single cell and systems biology, omics, and big data science, machine learning for experimental science, energy conversion and water treatment as well as microbial ecology with a focus on metabolism and ecosystem health. To facilitate in-depth discussions on future collaborations, an entire afternoon was dedicated to small individual workshops. Of common interest is the method development to study active sites or single cells in their functional aqueous environment.
During the tours through four national user facilities located at Berkeley Lab, including the JGI, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the Molecular Foundry and the Advanced Light Source, future collaborative research projects were also intensively discussed. The Berkeley Synchrotron Infrared Structural Biology (BSISB) Program for the characterization of biological processes was of high interest for the visitors, who saw the latest advancements in imaging-related technology and instrument-analytical methods.
“The microfluidic devices we recently developed allow us to produce multi-monodispersed droplets in a two-dimensional plane by moving different fluids together in a controlled manner. These advancements allow controlled sample transport for mass spectrometry applications, for example, or the timely controlled start of a biochemical reaction which can then directly be measured by IR-spectroscopy and mass spectrometry in sequence in real time at an atomic resolution. We are excited to start our collaboration to expand these operando spectroscopic methods in conjunction with microfluidics into a powerful tool to address many of the research questions discussed,” said Hoi-Ying Holman, who is a MBIB senior scientist and the BSISB director.
The JGI’s Tanja Woyke, head of the Microbial Genomics Program, is enthusiastic about new collaborative projects: “We are excited to continue our fruitful collaboration in the microbiome space that has resulted in many impactful papers in recent years, but are also looking forward to jointly expanding into new areas of research. The extensive algae collection at University of Duisburg-Essen is of particular interest, as it aligns well with DOE’s missions and the JGI’s algal focus.”
To bolster the already existing collaborations, Alexander Probst, initiator of the meeting and long-standing, successful JGI user, has now become an affiliate scientist at Berkeley Lab. Moreover, follow-up meetings, agreements on exchange of materials and samples as well as research visits are organized. Selected Berkeley Lab scientists are invited to visit the partners at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany in 2024 and 2025.
Participants from the UDE were Alexander Probst, Stephan Barcikowski, Lydia Didt, Anzhela Galstyan, Shirley Knauer, Beate Krok, Oliver J. Schmitz, and Kathrin Thedieck.
Aside from Mouncey, Holman and Woyke, participants from Berkeley Lab were Lauren Belisario, Greg Hura, Jan Kern, Nikos Kyrpides, Trent Northen, Robert Kostecki, Susan Tsutakawa, Junko Yano, and Petrus Zwart.