Projects | Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Investigating the Effect of Negative Arm Protein Conformations on the Circadian Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Cellulases.

Lead Institution

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Hurley

Project type

FICUS Research

Biofuel production using cellulases extracted from fungi has the potential to be a major resource to replace fossil fuels. Regulating the synthesis of these and other enzymes is crucial for the…

Illuminating emergent properties underlying complex carbon degradation within communities of soil microorganisms

Lead Institution

University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator

Erik Wright

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Soil microorganisms play a key role in the global carbon cycle by degrading the complex carbon molecules comprising plant litter and cell detritus. This provides a critical ecosystem service by…

Probing Atmospheric Nanoplastics: An Unrecognized Urban Source of Airborne Particles

Lead Institution

Purdue University

Principal Investigator

Alexander Laskin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

fragments of microplastic or larger plastic debris discharged into terrestrial and aquatic environments, while atmospheric occurrence of EnvNP is solely attributed to aerosolization by wind and other…

The thiol redox proteome dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to light

Lead Institution

Universidad de Sevilla

Principal Investigator

Francisco Javier Cejudo

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant performance relies on regulatory mechanisms that allow the rapid adaptation of their metabolism to light, the key stimulus for growth and development of photosynthetic organisms. Thus, dark…

Unraveling the biochemical and metabolic networks controlling bacterial cellulose biosynthesis

Lead Institution

University of Kentucky

Principal Investigator

Kendall Corbin

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Synthetic biology is a rapidly evolving field that uses novel engineering approaches to enhance the capabilities of organisms. Cellulose producing bacteria with commercial value, such as many in the…

Computational Mechanistic Studies of Methyl-coenzyme M Reductase Enzyme

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Bojana Ginovska

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after CO2, which accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it is by far the largest constituent of natural gas deposits. Methyl…

Identification of Individual Particle Chemical Composition, Morphology, and Ice Nucleation Properties in the Arctic

Lead Institution

University of Michigan

Principal Investigator

Kerri Pratt

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The proposed project will address critical gaps in our understanding of the Arctic aerosol chemical composition, mixing state, sources, and ice nucleation properties through chemical imaging and ice…

Mass-spectral 'fingerprinting' of technical and native lignin substrates for improved biological funneling and enzyme discovery

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Steven Hallam

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Lignin, composed of phenylpropanoid monomers connected by C-C and C-O-C (β-O-4 ether) bonds is the most energy dense polymer in lignocellulosic biomass and a potentially valuable source of aromatic…

Structural and functional dissection of a cell cycle chromatin switch in green algae

Lead Institution

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Principal Investigator

James Umen

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The long-term goal of this project is to understand the dynamic genetic programming which underlies cell growth and proliferation in green algae. This project addresses a long-standing enigma of how…

Characterization of the Aerobiome during ARM Surface-Atmosphere Integrated Laboratory (SAIL) Campaign

Lead Institution

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Maria Zawadowicz

Project type

FICUS Research

Atmospheric bioaerosols are bacteria, viruses, spores or pollen and their fragments suspended in ambient air, and they can have wide-reaching potential impacts on air quality, climate, and public…

Characterizing primary biological aerosol particles during TRACER

Lead Institution

University of Michigan

Principal Investigator

Allison Steiner

Project type

FICUS Research

Atmospheric organic aerosols represent a large fraction of the total aerosol in the atmosphere and can derive from primary sources emitted directly from natural or anthropogenic processes or be…

Understanding Product Selectivity of Monoterpene Synthases Using Atomistic Simulations

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Hoshin Kim

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Monoterpene synthases (MTSs) catalyze the biosynthesis of monoterpenes, which play a pivotal role in plant-plant communications as well as key ingredients for many industrial applications including…

Atomistic Simulations of the Discriminatory Power of Desaturase

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marcel Baer

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

We propose to use EMSL supercomputing resources to gain a molecular level understanding of how substrate binding, electron, and proton delivery are controlled by the desaturase metalloenzyme…

Towards Aerosol-Ice Formation Closure – Chemical Imaging Investigation of Aerosol and Ice Nucleating Particles

Lead Institution

State University of New York at Stony Brook

Principal Investigator

Daniel Knopf

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Prediction of ice nucleating particle (INP) number concentrations from ambient aerosol particles represents an urgent and challenging issue when simulating cloud processes in climate models. A recent…

Deciphering plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-soil interactions driving biological invasion in a southwestern desert grassland

Lead Institution

University of Arizona

Principal Investigator

Malak Tfaily

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant invasion is a major component of global change, leading to environmental transformations that alter ecosystem services and associated biogeochemical cycles. The overarching goal of this project…

Deciphering the structure and function of the last unknown major plant organelle - Plasmodesma

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Knoblauch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Plant tissues exhibit a symplasmic organization; the individual protoplasts are connected to their neighbors via cytoplasmic bridges that extend through pores in the cell walls. These bridges may…

Molecular controls of microbial nitrogen use efficiency in agricultural soils

Lead Institution

United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator

Amisha Poret-Peterson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Microbial nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) reflects the partitioning of organic N taken up between N incorporation into microbial biomass (growth) and N recycled to the environment as inorganic N …

Inferring Kinetic Models for Large-Scale Biochemical Networks

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Herbert Sauro

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Mechanistic models of cell networks that accurately predict changes in input-output dynamics and outcomes upon perturbation have the potential to facilitate a greater understanding of the…

Plant proteome structure-function and pKa prediction augmented with environmental considerations, Deep Learning and integrated datasets

Lead Institution

Johns Hopkins University

Principal Investigator

Carolyn Fitch

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

One of the goals of computational biology is to model cellular behavior. At the crux of this endeavor is the need to understand proteins in their biologically relevant environmental context. In other…

Revealing oxalate-mediated carbon flow through plant-fungal-bacterial rhizosphere interactions as part of a globally important carbon-sequestering biogeochemical process

Lead Institution

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Buck Hanson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Bacterial and fungal interactions in plant rhizospheres impart a myriad of beneficial functions to plant and soil health as well as playing important roles in biogeochemical cycling. However, the…