Projects

Probing the Martian atmosphere and hydrosphere using micro- and nano-scale analyses

Lead Institution

Royal Ontario Museum

Principal Investigator

Kimberly Tait-Sena

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Mars has long been the primary target in the search for possible life beyond our planet, mainly due to widespread evidence that water once flowed on its surface. Water is an essential ingredient for…

A new approach to protein folding by reducing dimensionality of protein conformational space

Lead Institution

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Al Geist

Project type

Exploratory Research

The objectives of this proposal are to develop and implement an efficient method to address the problem of protein folding. Our approach is based on reducing the multi-scale and multi-dimensional…

Identification of the SecB residue that is labeled by methanethiosulfonate

Lead Institution

University of Missouri - Columbia

Principal Investigator

Linda Randall

Project type

Exploratory Research

Aim: To identify the residue of SecB that is labeled by methanethiosulfonate (MTSL), a stable nitroxide spin label. SecB, a small tetrameric cytosolic chaperone in E.coli, facilitates the export…

Characterizing Key Factors That Influence Recalcitrance of Lignocellulosic Biomass Deconstruction via in-situ liquid IR SNOM Approach

Lead Institution

Washington State University Tri-Cities

Principal Investigator

Bin Yang

Project type

Exploratory Research

Call Topic: This proposal is in response to Functional and Systems Biology on EMSL’s suite of surface science capabilities are ideal for chemical imaging organic matter mineral interactions…

Model systems for understanding potassium transformations in fungal biomass

Lead Institution

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Principal Investigator

Ritimukta Sarangi

Project type

Exploratory Research

Soil biota plays an important role in nutrient cycling processes through breakdown of nutrients from soil minerals or organic matter and rebuilding new nutrient structures for storage within their…

Diel dynamics and physical interactions of phototrophic isolates from a hot spring microbial mat

Lead Institution

Carnegie Institution for Science

Principal Investigator

Devaki Bhaya

Project type

Exploratory Research

The microbial mats in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) are composed of diverse thermophilic microbial communities that have evolved to optimize sharing and utilization of scarce…

The role of structural and solvation dynamics of matrix proteins on apatite mineralization

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jinhui Tao

Project type

Exploratory Research

Our goal is to identify the spatial distributions, solvent and structural dynamics of matrix proteins (such as amelogenin, collagen) with joint ultrahigh spatial resolution as well as structural…

Machine Learning Assisted Classification of Ca-Organic Matter Complexation Using X-ray Spectroscopies

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Niranjan Govind

Project type

Exploratory Research

Soils and sediments host large stores of organic carbon, which can be released to the atmosphere upon mineralization. Ca has the potential to play a key role in preventing mineralization of this…

Rhodospirillum rubrum metabolic state during conversion of CO2 to ethylene

Lead Institution

The Ohio State University

Principal Investigator

Justin North

Project type

Exploratory Research

Ethylene (C2H4) is an essential plant hormone and is the chemical building block for nearly all plastics, detergents, and coolants. More ethylene is synthesized than any other industrial compound (…

Does microbial consumption of plant litter produce diverse pools of dissolved organic matter?

Lead Institution

Cornell University

Principal Investigator

Johannes Lehmann

Project type

Exploratory Research

Microbial consumption and transformation of plant litter is becoming a widely recognized control on soil organic matter (SOM) persistence. Although the reasons for the increased resiliency of…

Acquiring highly resolved root images of a cereal introgression line with enhanced root growth, and performance under low nitrogen stress by X-ray Computed Tomography

Lead Institution

University of California, Davis

Principal Investigator

Diane Beckles

Project type

Exploratory Research

The aim of this work is to obtain unambiguous data on the root specific architecture of a wheat introgression line 99 that has greater below ground biomass, and outperforms the cultivated parental…

Novel X-ray Interferometry Imaging of Plant Root Systems

Lead Institution

Louisiana State University

Principal Investigator

Joyoni Dey

Project type

Exploratory Research

Plants have mechanisms to overcome abiotic and biotic stresses. One of the main plant parts to adjust to available resources for growth are roots. Observing the changes in distribution of roots (RSA)…

Exploring oxalate metabolism and C transfer in bacterial-fungal interactions in the context of a soil carbon-storing biogeochemical process

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Patrick Chain

Project type

Exploratory Research

Bacterial-fungal interactions (BFI) in the rhizosphere impart a myriad of beneficial functions to plant and soil health as well as play important roles in biogeochemical cycling in soils. However,…

Vertical distribution of Phase State of Aerosol Particles at the Southern Great Plains

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Fan Mei

Project type

Exploratory Research

Organic aerosol particles contribute significantly to the total atmospheric fine particle mass. Depending on the nature of particles (e.g., source, chemical composition) and environmental factors (e…

Microbial control of mineral-bound carbon

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marie Kroeger

Project type

Exploratory Research

The formation of organo-mineral complexes, particularly in the deep soil horizons is a key process in the long-term stabilization and therefore persistence of carbon in soils. However, there is…

Understanding Carbon Use Efficiency in Soil Ecosystems Using Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Protein Digests and Metabolic Modeling

Lead Institution

Northern Arizona University

Principal Investigator

Paul Dijkstra

Project type

Exploratory Research

The efficiency with which organic compounds are used to produce microbial biomass is an important variable in modeling soil C cycling. This efficiency, called C use efficiency or CUE, is often…

Chemical nano-imaging of ice nucleating particles for understanding heterogeneous ice formation in atmospheric clouds

Lead Institution

Colgate University

Principal Investigator

Eric Muller

Project type

Exploratory Research

Ice nucleation in atmospheric clouds can determine the phase of water in the clouds and affect the radiative properties, lifetime and precipitation behavior. While pure water droplets can remain…

Microbial nitrogen use efficiencies and their molecular controls in carbon sequestering soils

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator

Amisha Poret-Peterson

Project type

Exploratory Research

Present-day agriculture faces a major challenge to sustain food production in the face of a changing climate while mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One way to rise to this challenge is to…

Unraveling the Interplay of Wetland Root Strength and Ecogeomorphology

Lead Institution

Louisiana State University

Principal Investigator

Navid Jafari

Project type

Exploratory Research

Critical gaps persist in understanding how coastal wetlands perform against storm surge and wave forcings, how these systems evolve over space and time (particularly in the face of sea level rise and…

Impact of Organic-Inorganic Interactions on Pore Networks and Fluid Transport

Lead Institution

St. Mary's College of Maryland

Principal Investigator

Geoffrey Bowers

Project type

Exploratory Research

The proposed work takes advantage of unique EMSL capabilities to study how organic molecules chemically tethered to pore surfaces impact the pore sizes, pore connectivity, and dynamics of sorbed…