Number 454 | December 14, 2015
Humble bacterium could advance hydrogen as renewable fuel
Newswise — A research team at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has discovered that a common type of cyanobacterium, or blue-green algae, produces hydrogen, via photosynthesis, in two ways. The finding could lead to new approaches for hydrogen production as a renewable energy resource.
The PNNL team published the information, which pertains to a cyanobacterium known as Cyanothece 51142, in the Scientific Reports journal. Researchers know that 51142 makes hydrogen by drawing upon sugars that it has stored during growth. In this study, the PNNL team found something new—that the organism also draws on a second source of energy, using sunlight and water directly to make the chemical element.
www.web.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/no454/story1.shtml
Research at NETL sheds light on sensor material behavior in harsh environments
Surface characterization is important for determining how materials interact with their environment. Researchers rely on their understanding of how surfaces behave in order to improve the performance of materials being incorporated in sensors. DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory is developing optical gas sensors, capable of operating in harsh environments, which can be used to monitor and control critical processes in a variety of energy systems including coal gasification, solid oxide fuel cells, gas turbines, and oxy-fuel combustion. For example, using optical gas sensors to monitor and adjust the gas environment during coal combustion or gasification can enable more efficient coal utilization and improved power plant efficiency.
Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)—a technique used to examine the surface chemistry of a solid material—NETL researchers have begun to understand the operating principles and sensing mechanisms behind promising nanocomposite thin film materials.www.web.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/no454/story2.shtml
Nanocarriers may carry new hope for brain cancer therapy
Glioblastoma multiforme is a cancer of the brain that is virtually inoperable, resistant to therapies, and always fatal, killing approximately 15,000 people in the United States each year. One of the major obstacles to treatment is the blood brain barrier, the network of blood vessels that allows essential nutrients to enter the brain but blocks the passage of other substances. Ting Xu, a scientist at DOE's Berkeley Lab who specializes in the creation of self-assembling bio/nano hybrid materials, has developed a new family of nano-sized vessels that can effectively carry a therapeutic drug across the blood brain barrier and deliver it to glioblastoma multiforme tumors. These new nanocarriers are called “3HM” for coiled-coil 3-helix micelles. www.newscenter.lbl.gov/2015/11/19/nanocarriers-may-carry-hope-for-brain-cancer/
Profile
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Senior Scientist Min Zhang has a special relationship with Zymomonas mobilis, a rod-shaped bacterium that has bioethanol-producing capabilities. Of her 80 peer-reviewed papers and 21 U.S. patents in the field of biochemistry and biofuels, many reference this sugar-eating “bug.”Their fortuitous pairing began shortly after the Chinese-born U.S. citizen and biochemical engineer arrived at DOE's NREL in 1992. She came as part of a newly created team tasked by what was then the Energy Department’s National Bioethanol Program with exploring a new path for ethanol conversion for biofuels. At the time, global researchers were focusing on using yeast for alcohol production.
“That [yeast] organism was the one people had studied for years. We at NREL decided to take a different approach,” Zhang said. They chose instead the fermentative bacteria known to scientists as Zymomonas mobilis.
www.web.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/no454/profile.shtml
Feature
ORNL researchers develop smart data tool to accelerate literature-based discoveryAs medical research has become more specialized, the scientific community’s understanding of the human body has increased, resulting in enhanced treatments, new drugs, and better health outcomes.
A side effect of this information explosion, however, is the fragmentation of knowledge. With thousands of new articles being published by medical journals every day, developments that could inform and add context to medicine’s global body of knowledge often go unnoticed.
Uncovering these overlooked gaps is the primary objective of literature-based discovery, a practice that seeks to connect existing knowledge. The advent of online databases and advanced search techniques has aided this pursuit, but existing methods still lean heavily on researchers’ intuition and chance discovery. Better tools could help uncover previously unrecognized relationships, such as the link between a gene and a disease, a drug and a side effect, or an individual’s environment and risk of developing cancer.
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