DOE Joint Genome Institute

All JGI Features
Home › Items tagged with: Eddy Rubin

Content Tagged "Eddy Rubin"

DOE JGI research featured in io9

Last month I was lucky enough to visit one of the biggest genomics labs in the world. At the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) in Walnut Creek, CA, huge rooms full of genome sequencing machines work 24/7 to crunch the codes that create life. And the research here, funded by the US Department of Energy, has… [Read More]

DOE JGI science in the Washington Post

JGI director and geneticist Eddy Rubin is a pioneer in the field of “metagenomics,” the study of how the DNA in many creatures can work together to create ecosystems. Right now, he and his team are studying microbes that live in a cow’s rumen, the stomach-like organ that the animals use to break down grasses… [Read More]

Director Rubin on corngrass1 for biofuel

Up to now, the fast-growing switchgrass, because of its tough lignin, an organic polymer, has required heavy chemical treatment before it can be turned to ethanol as biofuel. Chuck’s gene transfer experiments have shown that because the improved switchgrass keeps the plants young, the lignin content of their cells is minimal and would need no… [Read More]

Efficiency Improvements in Biofuels Production

To overcome the difficulties of converting cellulosic biomass into high energy-content fuel, researchers have been seeking to improve various stages of the process. One big obstacle that stands in the way is that most enzymes are inefficient at breaking down biomass when in the presence of ionic liquids, solvents that have proven effective at treating the… [Read More]

DOE JGI Director honored by Middlebury College

Waddell, who was presented the honorary degree, doctor of humane letters, was one of six people to receive honorary degrees at this year’s commencement ceremonies. The others were economics scholar and international adviser to political leaders Padma Desai, doctor of laws; Vermont’s long-serving senator, Patrick Leahy, doctor of laws; local volunteer and activist Dorothy Bigelow Neuberger… [Read More]

DOE JGI as ‘Genomics Foundry’ in GenomeWeb

The Joint Genome Institute plans to transition from a sequencing center to a “genomic foundry” — a one-stop shop for large-scale functional annotation, single-cell genomics and transcriptomics, high-throughput custom sample prep, and analysis expertise, among other proposed services, said Eddy Rubin at JGI’s sixth annual User Meeting in Walnut Creek, Calif. Ultimately, Rubin said, he… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study in EarthSky

Enter: the cow. If cows are good at anything, it’s digesting plant material until it turns into sugar; Dr. Rubin noted that cows have been eating grass for a few million years. That’s why Rubin’s team decided to do major genetic analysis of microbes inside the stomachs of cows. He explained that he was interested… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on BBC World Service: Science in Action

Growing crops to make bio-fuel is controversial – they can take up valuable land and resources that could be used for food production and in the case of oil palms, large tracts of rainforest have been cleared to make way for this cash crop. But the second generation of bio-fuels hope to make use of… [Read More]

Rumenating on improving biofuel production

Developing alternative fuels from plants has been challenging in part due to the high costs associated with processing plant biomass to more easily convert it into sugars and from there into biofuels. Ruminants such as the cow, however, can eat more than a hundred pounds of plant matter a day and break it down.  Switchgrass… [Read More]