(status: CLOSED for new Letters of Intent)
Applications for the JGI-EMSL Collaborative Science Initiative (JECSI) between EMSL and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) are being accepted from January 6, 2015 to April 6, 2015. Both user facilities are stewarded by the Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research and play critical roles in supporting DOE’s energy, environment and basic research missions. This call represents a unique opportunity for researchers to combine the power of genomics and molecular characterization in one proposed research project.
Applications for JECSI follow a proposal package guidance, schedule, and review process that is tailored to meet both EMSL and JGI requirements. Applications begin with Letters of Intent (LOI), and requests for full proposals will be issued by April 21. Returning users especially are advised to carefully review the unique elements of this joint program as some of the procedures have changed.
Details regarding this year’s focused topics, as well as contact information and links to the review criteria and proposal package guidance at http://www.emsl.pnl.gov/emslweb/jgi_initiative_call.
Highlights
Successful applications will focus on high risk/high payoff projects in the focused topic areas that can be completed on an accelerated timeline, as compared to the standard CSP or science theme projects; utilize a broad range of the capabilities of each facility; and generate datasets beyond what each of these facilities could generate by itself. In addition to the EMSL resources necessary for the proposed work, an individual application should not request more than 300 Gb of DOE JGI sequencing and 250 Mb of DOE JGI synthesis. Accepted projects must broadly address DOE/BER missions, but proof of concept for the demonstration of a technology that would be applicable to a DOE mission is appropriate.
Focused Topic Areas
- Biofuels and bioproducts – Projects should be aimed at characterizing biological processes at subcellular resolution that are relevant to biofuels and bioproducts and connecting these processes to genotypes in organisms of interest (plants, fungi, microbes). Proposals for projects investigating biological products involved in plant-microbial interactions that impact biofuel feedstock productivity are also encouraged.
- Plant-microbe interactions that impact climate – Projects should explore the exchange of C and N between plants and microbes in above and below ground ecosystems, particularly in response to elevated CO2, and abiotic stresses such as N and P limitation, increased temperature, and drought. Examples of approaches include but are not limited to studies that explore the importance of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in plant-microbe interactions and implications for atmospheric secondary organic aerosol formation. Proposals for projects studying the impact of genetic diversity within plant populations on climate-relevant plant-associated microbial communities and plant-microbial interactions are also encouraged.
EMSL provides a wide range of unique and state-of-the-art capabilities that can be applied to proposals under this Call, including newer capabilities including a variety of in-situ probes for NMR, advanced electron microscopy in quiet space including a dynamic transmission electron microscope, super resolution fluorescence microscopy for live cells, high-resolution mass spectrometers, a new Radiochemistry Annex, nonlinear optics (sum frequency generation), a 3.4 petaflop supercomputer, NanoSIMS, Atom Probe Tomography, and Imaging XPS. Applications may request any combination of resources, but must provide adequate information to demonstrate the plan for integration and justify the amount of time or other resources requested. Applicants are strongly urged to discuss their resource needs with the respective Capability Lead or Instrument Scientists prior to responding to the Call. Contact information for these individuals is available on the resource description pages, or interested applicants may contact the User Support Office for assistance.
Researchers interested in learning more about EMSL and specific instruments can view a dozen different instruments in four of EMSL’s laboratories through a panning 360-degree virtual tour. The tour includes lab and instrument overviews available through text, images, video and web pages. It features EMSL’s surface science instruments, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, ion mobility mass spectrometers, and cell isolation and surface analysis tools.
DOE JGI primarily employs next-generation short-read sequencing platforms augmented by 3rd generation single-molecule/long-read capabilities (read lengths in the 6-10kb range). The capabilities available for this call are listed below. Researchers are encouraged to review JGI’s sample submission guidelines to obtain additional information about the amounts of material that are required for various project types. Individual proposals may draw from one or more of these capabilities as needed to fulfill project goals. If longer read sequencing is needed, the burden is on the submitter to justify the request. Successful projects frequently exploit a combination of capabilities:
- Core Capabilities Include:
- De novo sequencing of plant, fungal, bacterial, and archaeal genomes
- Resequencing for variation detection
- Single-cell DNA sequencing
- Microbial community DNA/RNA sequencing
- Comprehensive transcriptome analysis including coding transcript annotation, non-coding RNA (both small and long ncRNA) characterization and expression profiling
- Target enriched re-sequencing
- Whole genome DNA methylation analysis
- Chromatin analysis including FAIRE, and histone modifications through ChIP-seq
- DNA/gene synthesis
- Analysis pipelines for the datasets above
- DOE JGI also has limited capacity for the following developing capabilities:
- 3rd generation single-molecule sequencing
- Fluorescence activated cell sorting, including single-cell sorting and amplification of genomic DNA
- Transposon mutagenesis of bacteria
- Custom genome analysis of generated datasets
Submitted LOIs will be reviewed by members of both EMSL and JGI scientific staff and management for relevance to DOE mission areas. Submitters whose letters of intent are approved will be notified via email to submit full proposals through EMSL’s User Portal by May 26, 2015. Proposals will be peer-reviewed and ranked following the published review criteria for EMSL and DOE JGI, using a combined panel of EMSL and DOE JGI independent reviewers. Final decisions based on ranking for these proposals will be made by EMSL and DOE JGI management, and approved projects will start on October 1, 2015.
Questions regarding JECSI or specifics related to this Call may be directed to the contacts listed below.
Contacts:
For general proposal inquiries – Terry Law
([email protected], 509-371-6003)
For EMSL’s Science Theme program – Karl Mueller
([email protected], 509-371-6550)
For Atmospheric Aerosol Systems – Alex Guenther
([email protected], 509-372-6467)
For Biosystem Dynamics and Design – Scott Baker
([email protected], 509-372-4759)
For Terrestrial and Subsurface Ecosystems – Nancy Hess
([email protected], 509-371-6385)
For multi-scale modeling and high-performance computing – Tim Scheibe
([email protected], 509-372-6065)
For Joint Genome Institute inquiries – Axel Visel
([email protected], 925-296-5639)