The proposed study will advance the sequencing of the type strains of prokaryotes and initiate the functional genomics of understudied groups. The goal of these studies is to improve our understanding of gene function for a wide variety of prokaryotes. Ultimately, a predictive model of prokaryotic life on earth will be developed to unite gene…
Short-Term Temperature Shift at Harvard Forest
Long-term warming results in significant changes in respiration, community structure and microbial processes. The primary goal of this project is to separate molecular changes resulting from long-term warming from temperature effects of gene expression using samples just prior to the power returning and the week afterwards when the soil temperature is again 5°C higher than…
Preparing for a Sequence Data Deluge
Accepted 2019 JGI Community Science Program proposals requested terabases of sequence data. Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, set an “institutional best” record by sequencing 20.4 trillion bases (Terabases or Tb) in a single month in Walnut Creek, Calif. Given the…
JGI Program Manager Dan Drell Retires
For more than a dozen years, Dr. Daniel Drell served as the JGI program manager at the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), in the Biological Systems Science Division (BSSD). After 30 years in government service, most of that time with the BER, he retired in September. Before he stepped down, he reflected on…
Access to Rock Star Scientists
Through the JGI-UC Merced Genomics Internship, graduate students Candace Cole, Mo Kaze, Akshay Paropkari, Vicente Ramirez and Rhondene Wint had summer 2018 internships in Walnut Creek. The students’ research culminated in presentations on their work delivered during the 5th anniversary celebration of the internship program. (Video shot and edited by JGI Communications & Outreach intern…
“A STEM career is in reach and accessible”
Notes from the Summer 2018 Biotech Partners Interns from Antioch High School. Though a partnership with Biotech Partners, a nonprofit that provides underserved youth in the Bay Area with personal, academic and professional development experiences that increase participation in higher education and access to fulfilling science careers, JGI hosted five students from Antioch High School…
At the Forefront of Terrestrial Virus Research
Gary Trubl is finishing his PhD in Microbiology at The Ohio State University, co-advised by Drs. Virginia Rich and Matthew Sullivan. He shared a few thoughts on his summer at JGI through a program that provides graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories. My dissertation work is on characterizing soil viruses via viral metagenomics (viromics)…
Fostering a Passion for Science
Through a variety of internship programs including the JGI-UC Merced integrated Genomics Internship and the Biotech Partners program, the JGI hosted summer interns from high school students to graduate students in 2018.
From Textbook to Real World Applications
When local students Maya Hanck of Carondelet High School and Tim Kostolansky of De La Salle High School expressed an interest in learning more about the principles of synthetic biology, Robert Evans and Jan-Fang Cheng in the Functional Genomics group took it upon themselves to mentor them. Why take on high school students instead of…
First Monoploid Reference Sequence of Sugarcane
Sorghum genome serves as a reference for the highly complex sugarcane genome. The Science Most species are diploids and have two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent. In contrast, many crops have multiple sets of chromosomes (they are “polyploid”) and their complex genomes are more difficult to sequence and assemble, in turn limiting the…