Office of Biological and Environmental Research Weekly
Report
June 1, 2009
Workshop Report:
“Low Dose Radiation Epidemiology—What Can it Tell Us?” The Office of
Science held a workshop in December 2008 identifying a pressing need and a
golden opportunity to obtain more information on the long term effects of
relatively low radiation doses, delivered over protracted periods of time, by
pooling and updating data for various groups of occupationally exposed U.S.
workers. This group of workers represents
a large and relatively untapped data base. In the long run, this data could
be integrated with studies from around the world. With the continuing increase of diagnostic
radiation, large studies with good dosimetry of both
patients and medical personnel could also contribute much needed data. The workshop organizing committee consisted
of a member each from DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National
Cancer Institute, and Columbia
University. Participants were chosen for their
acknowledged expertise, and included 29 epidemiologists, four dosimetrists, and five radiation biologists. A report on the workshop has been accepted
for publication in the July 2009 issue of the journal Radiation Research.
Media Interest:
None
Contact: Noelle Metting, SC-23.2, (301) 903-8309
“Plugging Microbial Activities and
Genomes into the Energy Grid." An Office of Science
sponsored symposium at the May general
meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Philadelphia discussed
microbial genomics and systems biology research aimed at the development of new
biofuels and bioenergy
sources. Tim Donohue and Jennie Reed of
the DOE Great
Lakes Bioenergy
Research Center
at the University
of Wisconsin convened the
symposium. The symposium also featured
Martin Keller of the DOE Bioenergy Sciences Center at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, James Liao of the UCLA-DOE Institute of Genomics
and Proteomics, and Andreas Schirmer of LS9, Inc., a
biotechnology company focusing on biofuels
research. Donohue, Keller, Liao, and Schirmer also participated in a press conference at the
meeting highlighting the symposium.
Follow up news articles appeared on the websites Genomeweb.com and Greenwire on May 19th, and further print articles are
expected to follow.
Media Interest: Yes
Contact: Joseph Graber, SC-23.2, (301) 903-1239
DOE Synchrotron Light Sources Reveal Structure of
Key Enzyme in Metabolism of Carbohydrates. Acetoacetate
decarboxylase is used by bacteria for a critical step
in the conversion of starches to alcohols and acetone, a key step in biofuels production.
Now the structure of the enzyme in three dimensions has been solved,
allowing scientists to understand the mechanism by which the conversion takes
place. This, in turn, will help development of improved enzyme variants through
protein engineering, including enzymes that could be used in the production of biofuels. The studies were carried out by a research group
based at Boston University using x-ray crystallography
stations at the National Synchrotron Light Source and a small angle x-ray
scattering station at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lights Source. Reference: Meng-Chiao
Ho, Jean-François Ménétret, Hiro
Tsuruta and Karen N. Allen, “The origin of the
electrostatic perturbation in Acetoacetate decarboxylase,” Nature,
459, 393-397 (21 May 2009)
Media Interest: None
Contact: Roland F. Hirsch, SC-23.2, (301) 903-9009
American Geophysical Union's (AGU) Monograph Series on High-Resolution Ocean
Modeling. DOE sponsored
researcher at Los Alamos, Matthew Hecht and Hirosayu Hasumi of the University
of Tokyo, are lead editors
of a recent AGU Monograph entitled Ocean
Modeling in the Eddying Regime. The
volume is the first to survey research of high resolution ocean modeling, in
which a far greater level of detail and realism is brought to the simulation of
ocean circulation. High resolution
simulation has been a focus for DOE-funded ocean modeling at Los
Alamos leading to improvements in model development and a context
in which to gain insight into physical oceanography. Los Alamos' ocean model has, for a number of
years, contributed to the Scientific Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), as the ocean component of the Community Climate
System Model. At the far higher resolutions
discussed in this new book, where feedbacks between relatively small but
energetic oceanic eddies and the large-scale mean flow are allowed to occur,
the model is being run on DOE's leading-edge
computing architectures to simulate climate with a more complete and accurate
representation of the dynamics which determine the state of the climate system
and its response to change.
Reference: Matthew
Hecht and Hiroyasu Hasumi, editors, 2008: Ocean
Modeling in an Eddying Regime. American
Geophysical Union Geophysical Monograph Series No. 177, Washington, D.C.
Media Interest: No
Contact: Anjuli Bamzai,
SC-23.1, (301) 903-0294
Improved Understanding of the Cause
of Arctic Sea Ice Decline. Two DOE- funded researchers are
part of the team that has edited a new book on the decline of Arctic Sea
ice. The American Geophysical Union
volume addresses the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice, placing recent sea ice
decline in the context of past observations, climate model simulations and
projections, and simple models of the climate sensitivity of sea ice. The book will be of interest to researchers
attempting to understand the recent behavior of Arctic sea ice, model
projections of future sea ice loss, and the consequences of sea ice loss for
the natural and human systems of the Arctic.
Reference: Arctic Sea
Ice Decline: Observations, Projections, Mechanisms and Implications. Eric T. DeWeaver, Cecilia
M. Bitz and L. -Bruno Tremblay (eds)
AGU 2009.
Media Interest: No
Contact: Anjuli Bamzai,
SC-23.1, (301) 903-0294