Projects

Microbial controls on climate active trace gas cycling in a model oxygen minimum zone

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Steven Hallam

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Dissolved oxygen (O2) concentration is a critical organizing principle within marine ecosystems. As oxygen levels decline, energy is increasingly diverted away from higher trophic levels into…

Integrating genome-scale metabolic modeling of a microbial community into simulations of subsurface flow and biogeochemical reactive transport.

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Steven Yabusaki

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The goal of this project is to develop a mechanistic, quantitative, and predictive simulation capability for coupled flow and biogeochemical reactive transport that accounts for: - genome-specific…

Model-guided biofuel production enhancement of metabolically engineered E. coli.

Lead Institution

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Hector Garcia Martin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

At the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) we have been able to metabolically engineer E. coli and S. cerevisiae strains that produce biofuel molecules such as bisabolene or fatty acid ethyl esters. In…

Identifying the key organisms, pathways and locations of hydrogen fermentation from lignocellulosic biomass in wood-feeding Passalid beetles.

Lead Institution

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Eoin Brodie

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Passalid beetles, such as Odontotaenius disjunctus, are subsocial insects that process large amounts of woody biomass by feeding on triturated wood. With the development of symbiotic relationships…

Interactions of Aerosols, Clouds and Precipitation in the Earth System

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Philip Rasch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Aerosols are important, and their sources and sinks are changing in response to human activity. Aerosols--small solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere--influence the planet in many…

Elucidating the Effects of Gene and Protein Structure on Heterologous Expression and Secretion of Biomass Hydrolyzing Enzymes in Aspergillus niger

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jon Magnuson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Filamentous fungi are excellent protein production hosts as evidenced by their wide use in industry to produce a variety of native proteins. However, consistent high titer heterologous protein…

Cryogenic Magnetic Resonance and Highly Electron Correlated Theories Applied to Photosynthetic Energy Conversion

Lead Institution

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

K. V. Lakshmi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The goal of this proposal is to demonstrate a unique capability to be enabled in the EMSL, the integration of leading-edge cryogenic NMR and EPR spectroscopy measurements with highly electron…

Exploring Ultrafast Photoinduced Charge Transfer: Excited-State Simulations of Valence and Core-Level Spectra of Transition Metal Complexes in Solution

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Munira Khalil

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The overall goal of the project is to develop a detailed molecular-level understanding of ultrafast photoinduced charge transfer and recombination in light harvesting materials. Ultrafast…

Interrogating the Formation Mechanisms of Secondary Organic Aerosols (SOA) from Aqueous-phase Reactions of Phenolic Compounds

Lead Institution

University of California, Davis

Principal Investigator

Qi Zhang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is usually a major component of airborne particulate matter (PM). Since PM has large impacts on climate, human health, and visibility, understanding the formation and…

Experimental and Modeling Studies on Reactive Mass Transfer Kinetics of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Rahul Zaveri

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The objectives of this project are to study the reactive mass transfer kinetics of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation at low, moderate, and high relative humidities. Through this EMSL-user…

How Dirigent Proteins Guide Assembly of Lignans and Lignin in Vascular Plants

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Norman Lewis

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Vascular plants use a class of proteins termed dirigent proteins (from Latin dirigere, to guide or steer) to direct the regio- and stereospecificity of radical-radical coupling reactions of…

Detailed Characterization of Particulates Emitted by Future High-Efficiency Vehicles

Lead Institution

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Principal Investigator

David Rothamer

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Current engine development aims to reduce consumption of limited fuel resources and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by increasing fuel efficiency. Advanced low temperature combustion technologies…

Towards understanding enzymatic diversity in biological lignin degradation

Lead Institution

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Gregg Beckham

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin is an alkyl-aromatic polymer comprising 15-30% of plant cell walls. It is underutilized in selective conversion processes to produce renewable fuels and chemicals from plant biomass, and is…

Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Mechanisms and Growth Dynamics

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Rahul Zaveri

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Recent theoretical and laboratory studies have revealed that the timescales of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) partitioning and the associated aerosol size distribution growth dynamics depend on the…

Stochastic methods for electronic structure and correlation in large molecular systems

Lead Institution

University of California, Los Angeles

Principal Investigator

Daniel Neuhauser

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Post Hartree-Fock (HF), fifth rung density functional theory (DFT), and many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) calculations are of importance for the estimation of observables dependent on correlation…

Quantifying the functional and structural states of dynamic microbial communities

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

James Fredrickson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The overall goal of this proposal is to provide a quantitative framework in which to compare species-resolved patterns of gene expression, allowing comparison of the effects of perturbations of…

Understanding deactivation pathways in bio-oil upgrading with the use of in situ NMR and EPR techniques

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Mariefel Olarte

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Biomass is the most readily available renewable source of liquid transportation fuel. According to DOE, fast pyrolysis followed by catalytic upgrading is projected to be the most cost effective among…

Development of Novel Chemical Architectures for Supercapacitor Electrolytes as New Energy Storage Materials using Computational Methods

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Neil Henson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This project proposes to use a number of state-of-the-art, highly parallelized computational chemistry tools in order to rationalize the structure and properties of the use of dendrimers as…

Sub Nanometer Sized Clusters for Heterogeneous Catalysis

Lead Institution

University of New Mexico

Principal Investigator

Abhaya Datye

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Providing sustainable sources of energy, chemicals, and materials is one of the most important long-term issues facing society. Catalysis plays a central role in creating sustainable sources of…

Evaluation of the Adaptation and Acclimation of Hypersaline Lithifying Microbial Mats to Salinity Disturbance in the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Stephen Callister

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Multiple capabilities at EMSL will be applied to mat microbial communities present along a salinity gradient between the North and South arms of the Great Salt Lake, UT. These lithifying microbial…