Biological and Environmental Systems

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Soil metagenomics

Argonne scientists Folker Meyer and Elizabeth Glass analyzing species and metabolic diversity from NEON soil metagenomics samples using MG-RAST (Metagenome Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) on Argonne's Active Mural Display. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.

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Soil metagenomics
Argonne scientists Folker Meyer and Elizabeth Glass analyzing species and metabolic diversity from NEON soil metagenomics samples using MG-RAST (Metagenome Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) on Argonne's Active Mural Display. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.
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seneca virus
An illustration of the 3-D structure of Seneca Valley Virus-001. The structure of a virus that is harmless to normal human cells but an enemy of certain cancer cells has been determined by researchers using an x-ray beamline at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. This new knowledge may help drug designers tweak the pathogen enough so that it can attack other tumor subtypes. Using the University of Chicago’s BioCARS 14-ID beamline at the APS, the researchers from The Scripps Research Institute have, for the first time, solved the three-dimensional (3-D) structure of a virus, known as “Seneca Valley Virus-001,” that can infect specific cancer cells.
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Folker Meyer
Folker Meyer is a computational biologist at Argonne National Laboratory and a senior fellow at the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago. He is also associate division director of the Institute of Genomics and Systems Biology. He trained as a computer scientists and started to work with biologists early on in his career. It was that exposure to interesting biological problems that sparked his interest in building software systems to tackle biological problems, mostly in the field of genomics or post-genomics. In the past he has been best known for his leadership role in the development of the GenDB genome annotation system. He has also played an active role in the design and implementation of several high-performance computing platforms. His current work focuses on the analysis of shotgun metagenomics data sets and on the MG-RAST community resource for metagenomics. He also has an interest in microbial genomics and the analysis of complete microbial genomes and is a member of the RAST project.
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Metagenome analysis
Argonne scientists Folker Meyer and Elizabeth Glass analyzing species and metabolic diversity from NEON soil metagenomics samples using MG-RAST (Metagenome Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) on Argonne's Active Mural Display. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.
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Cristina Negri
Cristina Negri, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory. Photo courtesy Argonne National Laboratory. As an agronomist (University of Milan, Italy, 1981), M. Cristina Negri leads the phytotechnologies R&D activities at Argonne. During her 16-year Argonne appointment, she conducted and directed laboratory to full scale projects developing technologies for environmental stewardship and applying them to the sustainable production of lignocellulosic energy crops feedstock. These multidisciplinary projects leverage the understanding of crop/water relationships to maximize both biomass productivity and sustainability, minimize drought losses, and validate strategies for the utilization of alternative water and land resources to increase biomass productivity while at the same time providing positive environmental services.
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Argonne scientists seek natural remediation for uranium-rich sites
Argonne scientists Ken Kemner (right) and Ed O’Loughlin work to better understand exactly how bacteria chemically changes uranium. Full story. Photo by George Joch / courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.
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Ice slurry technology can save heart attack victims, surgery patients
When treating cardiac arrest victims, doctors can't call a time-out. Without the ability to obtain fresh oxygen from blood pumped through the body, brain cells start to die in just minutes. Within 10 to 20 minutes after the heart stops beating, the clock has run out. Even if doctors can get the heart ticking again, the brain has died. Recently, however, researchers have begun to develop a new technique that can reduce the brain and other organs' demand for oxygen, giving doctors precious extra time to diagnose and treat critical patients in emergencies while also protecting the heart, brain, kidneys and spinal cord in planned surgeries. Full story » Photo courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.
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Metagenome analysis
Argonne scientists Folker Meyer and Elizabeth Glass analyzing species and metabolic diversity from NEON soil metagenomics samples using MG-RAST (Metagenome Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) on Argonne's Active Mural Display. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.
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Argonne applies cone penetrometer technology in environmental work
Argonne’s cone penetrometer vehicles work side by side at a contaminated environmental site in Kansas. The 40-ton unit at left is mounted on a Mack truck. The 22-ton track-mounted crawler unit at right was customized for environmental work by the firm A.P. van den Berg of The Netherlands. Courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.
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Argonne cleans contaminated Kansas site by feeding bacteria
This carbon tetrachloride-contaminated field in Centralia, Kansas underwent test injections of iron microparticles and bacteria, intended to clean the soil. Read more » Argonne National Laboratory.
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Cyanobacteria
Chains of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, produce oils which could be used for transportation fuels. Image courtesy of the University of California, San Diego Division of Biological Sciences Credit: James Golden
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Closterium fluorescence
Confocal microscopy of C. moniliferum, an algae that takes up strontium and could be used in cleaning up radioactive contamination. Read more here... Image courtesy Minna Krejci/Joester Laboratory of Northwestern University.