2: Harness the Power of Our Living World

Provide the biological and environmental discoveries necessary to clean and protect our environment, offer new energy alternatives, and fundamentally alter the future of medical care and human health.

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Executive Summary: After two decades of research leadership in genomics, we can now search for molecular-level insights into cellular function, beginning with the characterization of multiprotein complexes. With that knowledge, we will employ the extraordinary efficiency of microbes to meet human needs and develop new approaches to medical care. In addition, through a systems-level understanding of our Earth’s climate system, carbon cycle, and biogeochemistry, we will enable regional scale prediction of climate change and the design of mitigation and adaptation measures. Detailed Commentary: Over billions of years of evolution, Nature has created life’s machinery—from molecules, microbes, and complex organisms to the biosphere—all displaying remarkable capacities for efficiently capturing energy and controlling precise chemical reactions. The natural, adaptive processes of these systems offer important clues to designing solutions to some of our greatest challenges. In the next decade, science will reveal the mechanisms and genetic secrets by which microorganisms develop, survive, and function in different environments. We will be able to manipulate matter at the micro, nano, and molecular scales; and we will be able to model and predict biological and environmental interactions on a regional and global basis. Such capabilities will provide us unprecedented opportunities to forge new pathways to energy production, environmental management, and medical diagnosis and treatment. To realize this vision, many challenging scientific questions will have to be answered: • What are the fundamental genetic processes, structures, and mechanisms that living systems use to control their responses to their environment, and how can we predict and repeat those processes to put Nature to work for us? • How do we design new and revolutionary technologies and processes, using and combining principles of biological and physical systems that offer new solutions for challenges from medicine to environmental cleanup? • How do clouds influence climate change, and how does human activity affect the behavior of clouds? How sensitive is climate to different levels of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the environment? Answers to these and other questions will come only through effective convergence of the physical, life, and computational sciences. We have the track record and infrastructure to conduct the large-scale, complex, and interdisciplinary research to meet the challenge. Already, the Office of Science has delivered genome sequencing, protein crystallography, advanced tools for understanding the environment at the molecular level, integrated climate modeling, and advanced imaging tools. With anticipated new facilities, such as those for Genomics: GTL, as well as high-performance computational platforms and cutting-edge measurement tools, we are prepared to harness the power of our living world for a secure, environmentally sound, and energy-rich future. As an integral part of this Strategic Plan, and in Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, we have identified the need for four future facilities to realize our Biological and Environmental Research vision and to meet the science challenges described in the following pages. Two of the facilities are nearterm priorities: the Protein Production and Tags facility and the Characterization and Imaging of Molecular Machines facility. The Protein Production and Tags facility will use highly automated processes to mass produce and characterize tens of thousands of proteins per year, create “tags” to identify these proteins, and make these products available to researchers nationwide. The facility for Characterization and Imaging of Molecular Machines will build on capabilities provided by the Protein Production and Tags facility to provide researchers with the ability to isolate, characterize, and create images of the thousands of molecular machines that perform the essential functions inside a cell. All four facilities are included in our Biological and Environmental Research Strategic Timeline at the end of the chapter and in the facilities chart in Chapter 7 (page 93), and they are discussed in detail in the Twenty-Year Outlook. Our Timeline and Indicators of Success: Our commitment to the future, and to the realization of Goal 2: Harness the Power of O ur Living World, is not only reflected in our strategies, but also in our Key Indicators of Success, below, and our Strategic Timeline for Biological and Environmental Research (BER), at the end of this chapter. Our BER Strategic Timeline charts a collection of important, illustrative milestones, representing planned progress within each strategy. These milestones, while subject to the rapid pace of change and uncertainties that belie all science programs, reflect our latest perspectives on the future— what we hope to accomplish and when we hope to accomplish it— over the next 20 years and beyond. Following the science milestones, toward the bottom of the timeline, we have identified the required major new facilities. These facilities, described in greater detail in the DOE Office of Science companion report, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook, reflect time-sequencing that is based on the general priority of the facility, as well as critical-path relationships to research and corresponding science milestones. Additionally, the Office of Science has identified Key Indicators of Success, designed to gauge our overall progress toward achieving Goal 2. These select indicators, identified below, are representative long-term measures against which progress can be evaluated over time. The specific features and parameters of these indicators, as well as definitions of success, can be found on the web at www.science.doe.gov/ measures. Key Indicators of Success: • Progress in characterizing the multi-protein complexes (or the lack thereof ) that involve a scientifically significant fraction of a microbe’s proteins. Develop computational models to direct the use and design of microbial communities to clean up waste, sequester carbon, or produce hydrogen. • Progress in delivering improved climate data and models for policymakers to determine safe levels of greenhouse gases. By 2013, reduce differences between observed temperature and model simulations at subcontinental scales using several decades of recent data. • Progress in developing science-based solutions for cleanup and long-term monitoring of DOE contaminated sites. By 2013, a significant fraction of DOE’s long-term stewardship sites will employ advanced biology-based cleanup solutions and sciencebased monitors.

Objective(s):

2.1: Genomics and Microbial Systems

2.2: Climate Change

2.3: Environmental Remediation

2.4: Health and Medical Applications

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