Projects

Using the approaches of mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics and small interfering RNA (siRNA)-induced gene silencing to identify new insulin receptor signaling components in cultured adipocytes.

Lead Institution

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Principal Investigator

Zhen Jiang

Project type

Exploratory Research

Insulin is a hormone that plays key roles in the regulation of fuel (glucose, fatty acid and protein) metabolisms and gene expression in the human body. Impaired insulin signaling and actions lead…

Analysis of catalysts

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Douglas Elliott

Project type

Exploratory Research

use EMSL capabilities in imaging and analysis to better understand catalyst structures

Growth of vanadium oxides on anatase TiO2 (001)

Lead Institution

Yale University

Principal Investigator

Weiwei Gao

Project type

Exploratory Research

Anatase TiO2 (001) has been grown on LaAlO3 (001) by using oxygen plasma assisted MBE. About 30nm vanadium oxide was also deposited on anatase TiO2 (001) surface in O2 plasma environment. XPS/UPS…

Temporal Dynamics of Microbial Traits Driving Divergent Patterns of Carbon Flow During Surface Litter Decomposition

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marie Kroeger

Project type

FICUS Research

Microbially-driven surface litter decomposition is an important terrestrial ecosystem process creating soil organic carbon that serves as an essential carbon sink. Climate change projections show…

Investigating interactions between soil microbial communities and soil organic matter dynamics along climate and vegetation gradients

Lead Institution

Michigan State University

Principal Investigator

Jessica Miesel

Project type

FICUS Research

Soils hold globally-important stocks of organic matter, with critical relevance for nutrient cycling and climate change. As the primary agents of decomposition, soil microbes play a key role in soil…

A day in the life of Chlamydomonas and its neighbors: Systems analysis of a microbial phototroph-heterotroph symbiosis

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Sabeeha Merchant

Project type

FICUS Research

Phytoplankton, which rely on the sun for energy, are responsible for roughly half of global primary productivity. These organisms dramatically change their metabolic strategy in the night when…

Effects of plant functional diversity on the ecosystem responses to forest harvesting

Lead Institution

Institute of Microbiology of the CAS

Principal Investigator

Petr Baldrian

Project type

FICUS Research

Forests are important ecosystem that help to maintain the global C balance largely due to C storage in soils, but also play multiple additional roles including the important economic role as the…

Functional and structural analysis of microbial expansin-related proteins that transform lignocellulosic biomass

Lead Institution

University of Toronto

Principal Investigator

Emma Master

Project type

FICUS Research

This project brings together functional genomics, structural biology, and advanced techniques in material science, to evaluate the untapped potential of microbial expansin-related proteins in the…

Tracking the degradation of fresh particulate organic matter in permeable riverbed sediments using FT-ICR-MS and metagenomic/transcriptomic sequencing

Lead Institution

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Principal Investigator

Eric Roden

Project type

FICUS Research

The hyporheic zone, where groundwater and river water mix within riverine corridors, represents a highly active zone of biogeochemical cycling in which key transformations of many critical elements…

Illuminating soil biogeochemical responses to press and pulse disturbances in a coastal ecosystem

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jianqiu Zheng

Project type

FICUS Research

Coastal ecosystems are undergoing dramatic transitions as sea level rise accelerates and precipitation and storm regimes change. Depending upon the intensity and duration of seawater exposure,…

Plastic Degrading Microbial Communities from Insect Larvae Guts

Lead Institution

University of Delaware

Principal Investigator

Mark Blenner

Project type

FICUS Research

Insect microbial consortia are attractive platforms for plastics deconstruction and conversion as they degrade plastics more rapidly than microbial isolates and do not require pretreatment. While…

Resolving taxon-specific contributions to nutrient cycling in soil microbial communities through stable isotope enabled multi-omics

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Amy Zimmerman

Project type

FICUS Research

Mechanistic and predictive understanding of microbial nutrient cycling requires deconvoluting the outcomes of multiple population- and community-scale processes. Yet quantitative knowledge of…

Belowground genotype-phenotype controls on nitrogen use efficiency of a sorghum bioenergy crop

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Laura Meredith

Project type

FICUS Research

Plant-microbe interactions drive nitrogen (N) transformations in soil, and a detailed understanding of these inter-organismal interactions is needed to enhance crop productivity and N use efficiency,…

Beneficial Partners: Context Dependent Mycorrhizal Resource Exchange in Bioenergy Cropping Systems

Lead Institution

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Erin Nuccio

Project type

FICUS Research

The development of environmentally sustainable sources of energy is a grand challenge of the 21st century. Plant feedstocks are promising renewable sources for liquid transportation fuels, and the…

Assessing the contribution of sediment bioirrigation to the oxidative removal of methane from a fluvial wetland.

Lead Institution

Marine Biological Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Emil Ruff

Project type

FICUS Research

Wetlands are among the largest natural sources of the greenhouse gas methane. While the net fluxes of methane to the atmosphere are relatively well understood, the amount of methane-derived carbon…

Computational Investigation of Acid Base, Surface Complexation, and Oxidation/Reduction Reaction Mechanisms on Iron Oxide and Iron Silicate Surfaces (Felmy Rustad BES, PNNL SCOPE #22130).

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Andrew Felmy

Project type

Exploratory Research

This project is directed at providing a molecular scale understanding of surface complexation reactions occurring at oxide, oxyhydroxide, and silicate mineral surfaces through the use of molecular…

Chalcogenide Surface Science

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Bradley Johnson

Project type

Exploratory Research

Chalcogenide nanowires have been observed to form on soda lime glass and fused quartz substrates. These materials have potential application for analytical and photonic devices. Further research is…

Low temperature Si device fabrication

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Scott Dunham

Project type

Exploratory Research

There is a demand for high performance semiconductor devices which are thin and flexible, for applications where high frequency operation, light weight, and conforming to a curved surface is…

Characterization of novel arsenic-iron precipitates formed during biological iron reduction

Lead Institution

Colorado State University

Principal Investigator

Thomas Borch

Project type

Exploratory Research

Arsenic (As) is a priority pollutant, the fate of which is in part controlled by reactions with ferrous iron. Ferrous iron is capable of mediating solid phase transformations of soil and sediment…

The Microstructural Influence on Fatigue Crack Growth in Rene 88DT

Lead Institution

Colorado School of Mines

Principal Investigator

Kip Findley

Project type

Exploratory Research

In order to reduce materials development time in superalloy applications, it is necessary to develop physically-based models to predict the alloy's properties. Fatigue is a life-limiting…