Energy Department releases roadmap 
for new biological research efforts

WASHINGTON (10/13/05) -- The Department of Energy (DOE) has released a comprehensive plan for a new generation of biology research that builds on genome project investments to help solve national energy and environmental challenges.  Microbial enzymes could, for example, be used to improve the manufacture of ethanol from cellulose by replacing the inefficient and expensive processes used today.

The Genomics: GTL Roadmap:  Systems Biology for Energy and Environment outlines a plan to explore the unseen world of microbes—starting with information encoded in their DNA sequences—to produce the new science needed for achieving cleaner and more secure energy resources, remediating toxic wastes and understanding the natural roles microbes play in the global climate. 

"Much as the Human Genome Project stimulated the growth of a biomedical biotechnology industry, the research laid out in this roadmap will spur growth in a new industrial biotechnology sector," Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "Microbes can be used for processes and products that can serve as an engine for economic competitiveness in the 21st century." 

The roadmap traces the path from national energy and environmental needs to the scientific progress that should be pursued with the benefit of emerging technologies, integrated computing and a new research infrastructure.  The new plan was formulated over the last three years with the expertise of nearly 800 scientists and technology experts and is now being reviewed and refined at the National Academy of Sciences.

The GTL research program has three phases: 
 

• In the first phase, key proof of principle experiments on complex energy and environmental systems will be performed and new technologies and computing techniques will be developed, used for science and scaled up in user research facilities.  

• In the second phase, the high throughput tools and capabilities will be applied to rapidly understanding biological processes, developing concepts for industrial application to energy and environmental problems and to understand the interactions between global biological processes and climate.  

• In the third and final phase, this knowledge and these capabilities will position GTL to rapidly transform new science into revolutionary new processes and products to help meet critical national energy and environmental needs.

The 2005 GTL Roadmap builds on and expands the 
GTL research program begun in 2002.  Scientific and technological progress achieved during the Human Genome Project, initiated in 1986 by DOE, and the Microbial Genome Program, begun in 1994, provided the foundation for establishing the GTL program.  

The roadmap and more information on the GTL program is available online.