Ten Proposals Selected for Fiscal Year 2027 FICUS Research Call

Ten projects were recently selected through the Fiscal Year 2027 Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) Research proposal call to conduct topic-focused work that utilizes resources from multiple user facilities. 

The principal investigators (PIs) and their teams will leverage the instruments, staff expertise, experimental capabilities, data, and samples available from the following U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facilities:

• Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory
• Center for Structural Molecular Biology (CSMB) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
• Joint Genome Institute (JGI)

The chosen projects aim to generate datasets that exceed what is achievable using just one facility's resources. This year's focus topic areas are:

• bioeconomy and biomanufacturing
• critical minerals and materials
• hydrobiogeochemistry

Projects begin October 1, 2026. 

What are the awarded FY 2027 FICUS Research projects?

Learn more about the projects below. The information is organized alphabetically by each PI's last name within their respective topic areas.

Focus Topic Area: Bioeconomy and Biomanufacturing

An Integrated Multiomics and Structural Biology Pipeline for the Discovery and Characterization of Novel Enzymes and Microbes for Beached Sargassum (Brown Macroalgae) Upcycling

PI: Shishir Chundawat, Rutgers University
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

To combat the economic and ecological crisis of massive Sargassum macroalgae blooms on Caribbean shores, this project uses multiomics and structural biology to study natural degradation hotspots to identify microbes and enzymes that break down Sargassum's polysaccharides, creating a toolkit to convert seaweeds into sustainable fuels, chemicals, and critical materials.

Deciphering the Mechanisms of Starship-mediated Horizontal Gene Transfer in Fungi Using Structural Biology

PI: Emile Gluck-Thaler, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

This project investigates how "Starships"—giant transposons enabling horizontal gene transfer in fungi—are mobilized at the molecular level. Researchers will determine the structure and function of 10 "captain" proteins, alone and bound to DNA, using DNA synthesis and structural biology resources, potentially advancing understanding of fungal genome evolution and enabling new genetic engineering tools.

Molecular Origin of Fungal Ice Nucleation

PI: Konrad Meister, Boise State University
Facilities: CSMB, EMSL, and JGI

This project seeks to understand the molecular diversity and mechanisms of fungal ice nucleators, which influence clouds, precipitation, and water availability. Recent work has identified the first soluble fungal protein responsible for ice nucleation at warm temperatures, providing a genetic and molecular basis for mechanistic study and potential technologies.

Determinants of Dynamic Stress Adaptation in Corynebacterium Glutamicum: Implications for Robust Biomanufacturing 

PI: Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

This project asks how dynamic industrial stresses reshape regulation, metabolic flux, and membranes in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Researchers will combine 13C metabolic flux analysis, lipidomics, and targeted gene repression under relevant stress conditions. The proposed framework could identify bottlenecks underlying microbial production failure and guide engineering for robust biomanufacturing.

Systems-level Understanding of Allosteric Regulation to Facilitate Process Scalability in Synthetic Biology Applications

PI: Philipp Savakis, VU University Amsterdam
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

This project asks which allosteric interactions causally regulate yeast metabolism, how they sustain robustness, and whether rewiring them trades fitness for productivity. Researchers will screen roughly 500 barcoded Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants under fluctuating glucose, and then combine biochemical, single-cell, multiomics, and modeling analyses. Results could guide engineering of yeast production strains.

Reprogramming Fe Metabolism at the Root

PI: Daniela Strenkert, Michigan State University
Facilities: APS, EMSL, and JGI

Iron regulation is essential across taxa because iron is toxic in excess but restricts cell growth when availability is limited. Studying iron regulatory mechanisms in phototrophs is challenging because key mutants in terrestrial plants are lethal. This project will use viable Chlamydomonas green algae mutants that lack core iron-regulatory genes, combining transcriptomics, proteomics, and elemental imaging to uncover fundamental iron homeostasis principles relevant to crop biofortification.

Focus Topic Area: Critical Minerals and Materials

Microbial Impacts on Metal Speciation Across 45 Years of Landfill Leachate

PI: Laura Hug, University of Waterloo
Facilities: APS, EMSL, and JGI

This project will determine how biological and chemical processes control metal mobility in landfill leachate as waste ages. Researchers will compare size-fractionated leachate from landfill cells of different ages using chemical characterization, multiomics, and modeling. Results could identify conditions governing metal leaching and inform recovery of critical minerals from landfills.

Elucidating Desert Microbial Strategies for Critical Material Acquisition through Spatial Metabolomics and Multiomics

PI: Malak Tfaily, University of Arizona
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

Metallophores are metal-binding molecules that organisms release to capture scarce elements, yet most remain chemically undefined. This project uses genomic, metabolomic, and imaging tools to identify metallophores that control critical element acquisition, linking biosynthetic genes to compounds and informing sustainable recovery of critical materials for clean energy.

Focus Topic Area: Hydrobiogeochemistry

From Accumulation to Persistence: Mineralogical and Drought Controls on the Stability of Newly Fixed Rhizosphere Carbon in Bioenergy Sorghum Soils

PI: Yuan Liu, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Facilities: APS and EMSL

This project will examine how drought and mineral identity regulate the accumulation and persistence of newly fixed plant carbon in sorghum rhizospheres. Combining 13C pulse labeling, mineral bags, and molecular-scale analyses, the researchers will determine whether carbon retained on mineral surfaces becomes stabilized or remains vulnerable to loss.

Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Pyrogenic Organic Matter Degradation with Consequences for Water Retention and Soil Mineral Availability

PI: Claire Willing, University of Washington
Facilities: EMSL and JGI

Wildfire severity may create a trade-off between the stress tolerance of fungi and their ability to degrade pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM), affecting post-fire soil recovery. This project will use pyrocosm experiments with soils from burned and unburned sites, combining metatranscriptomics, NMR, and NanoSIMS imaging to test how fire history shapes fungal PyOM-degradation capacity and inform land management.