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Fungal geneticist Joanna Tannous is gaining a better understanding of the genetic processes behind fungal life to both combat plant disease and encourage beneficial processes like soil carbon storage. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Joanna Tannous has found the perfect organism to study to satisfy her deeply curious nature, her skills in biochemistry and genetics, and a drive to create solutions for a better world. The organism is a poorly understood life form that greatly influences its environment and is unique enough to deserve its own biological kingdom: fungi.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Dave Weston works in a chamber at the DOE SPRUCE whole ecosystem experiment site in the peatlands of northern Minnesota. Credit: Kyle Pearson/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A quest to understand how Sphagnum mosses facilitate the storage of vast amounts of carbon in peatlands led scientists to a surprising discovery: the plants have sex-based differences that appear to impact the carbon-storing process.

Computational systems biologists at ORNL worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other institutions to identify 139 locations across the human genome tied to risk factors for varicose veins, marking a first step in the development of new treatments. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

As part of a multi-institutional research project, scientists at ORNL leveraged their computational systems biology expertise and the largest, most diverse set of health data to date to explore the genetic basis of varicose veins.

Merlin Theodore

Merlin Theodore is one of eight new board members announced by President Biden; she will join the 25-member board for a six-year term.

Erica Prates is using her skills as a computational systems biologist to link the smallest molecules to their impact on large ecosystems. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Erica Prates has found a way to help speed the pursuit of healthier ecosystems by linking the function of the smallest molecules to their effects on large-scale processes, leveraging a combination of science, math and computing.

Paul Langan will oversee ORNL's research directorate focused on biological and environmental systems science. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Paul Langan will join ORNL in the spring as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate.

Jack Cahill of ORNL’s Biosciences Division is developing new techniques to view and measure the previously unseen to better understand important chemical processes at play in plant-microbe interactions and in human health. In this photo, Cahill is positioning a rhizosphere-on-a-chip platform for imaging by mass spectrometry. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy

John “Jack” Cahill is out to illuminate previously unseen processes with new technology, advancing our understanding of how chemicals interact to influence complex systems whether it’s in the human body or in the world beneath our feet.

Eight ORNL scientists are among the world’s most highly cited researchers, Credit: Butch Newton/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Eight ORNL scientists are among the world’s most highly cited researchers, according to a bibliometric analysis conducted by the scientific publication analytics firm Clarivate.

Matthew Craig’s research at ORNL is focused on how carbon cycles in and out of soils, a process that can have tremendous impact on the Earth’s climate. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Matthew Craig grew up eagerly exploring the forest patches and knee-high waterfalls just beyond his backyard in central Illinois’ corn belt. Today, that natural curiosity and the expertise he’s cultivated in biogeochemistry and ecology are focused on how carbon cycles in and out of soils, a process that can have tremendous impact on the Earth’s climate.

Paul Brackman loads 3D-printed metal samples into a tower for examination using an X-ray CT scan in DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. Credit: Brittany Cramer/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A new deep-learning framework developed at ORNL is speeding up the process of inspecting additively manufactured metal parts using X-ray computed tomography, or CT, while increasing the accuracy of the results. The reduced costs for time, labor, maintenance and energy are expected to accelerate expansion of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.