U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Science

For more information on the Office of Science visit our website:

www.science.doe.gov

Biotechnology for Energy Security

Summary

The biotechnology revolution has potential benefits that extend well beyond the promise of 

increased human health and longevity. The Office of Science is now seeking to exploit that 

revolution to use plants, microbes, and microbial communities to produce energy, remove 

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and clean up hazardous waste. 

The 21st Century is already being called the 

“biological century”—an era when advances in 

biology, spurred by achievements in genomic 

research, including the sequencing of the human 

genome, will bring revolutionary and unconventional solutions to some of our most pressing 

and expensive challenges in health, energy, the 

environment, and national security. 

This new era of biology is one in which we will 

understand the workings of entire biological 

systems and not just bits and pieces of those 

systems. We will understand how living 

organisms interact with and respond to their 

environments. We will use that information to 

make biology work for us to produce clean 

energy, remove excess carbon dioxide from the 

atmosphere, help clean up the environment, or 

better detect and defeat bioterrorism. 

While scientists have long tried to understand 

the workings of individual genes or small groups 

of genes, this new era of biology will focus on 

entire networks of genes and even entire 

biological systems—small, single-celled 

organisms at first, and later more complex 

creatures including humans. This dramatic 

advance is possible, in large part, because of the 

scientific and technical successes of the Human 

Genome Project. Begun by the Department of 

Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, with its 

broad capabilities in engineering, computation, 

and biology, this project to sequence and understand the functions of human genomic DNA has 

revolutionized biology and taught us the value of 

high throughput, hypothesis-generating research. 

The success of the Human Genome Project has 

led to similar projects and successes as the 

genomes of other organisms, from microbes to 

plants to worms to flies to mice, have been 

sequenced. The information and technology now 

available to all scientists as a result of this 

genomic research not only gives us new perspectives on the inner workings of biological systems, but also provides new opportunities to use 

this knowledge to solve national problems.

In recent years, DOE has made contributions to 

our Nation’s biological research, an investment 

that made pivotal contributions to many national 

successes in the biological and medical sciences, 

e.g., the human genome project, medical imaging technology, medical isotopes for diagnostic 

imaging, chemical-biological sensors, and the 

National Institute of Health’s new Protein 

Structure Initiative. While these basic research 

programs, new technologies, and resources for 

future research are, today, all “owned” by other 

agencies, they would not even exist were it not 

for investments in high risk, high payoff Office 

of Science research.

Genomes to Life is another such program at the 

forefront of the biological revolution. Genomes 

to Life is a novel program at the interface of the 

biological, physical, and computational sciences. 

It will take advantage of solutions that nature 

has already devised to solve problems in energy 

production, environmental cleanup, carbon 

cycling, and even biological defense to help us 

use biology to design our own solutions to these 

national challenges. 
U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Science

For more information on the Office of Science visit our website:

www.science.doe.gov

Through Genomes to Life, we see the possibility 

of biotechnology solutions that can give us 

abundant sources of clean energy while controlling greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, a key 

factor in global climate change. Beginning with 

our DNA sequencing successes and our ability 

to quickly, cheaply, and accurately determine 

the DNA sequence of microbes, Genomes to 

Life offers the promise of unconventional, 

biology-based solutions for energy security:

• Clean Energy—Within 10 years, advances 

in systems biology, computation, and 

technology will contribute to increased 

biology-based energy sources. By 2050 they 

will contribute to energy security through a 

major new bioenergy industry.

• Reduced Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere—Within 10 years, advances in 

systems biology, computation, and 

technology will help us understand earth’s 

carbon cycle and design ways to enhance 

carbon capture. By 2040 they will contribute 

to stabilization of atmospheric carbon 

dioxide to counter global warming.

Over billions of years of evolution, nature has 

created a remarkable array of multiprotein 

molecular machines with exquisitely precise and 

efficient functions and controls, including 

mechanical motion, molecular detection, 

chemical synthesis, and light emission and 

detection. 

Genomes to Life is a basic research program at 

the interface of the biological, physical, and 

computational sciences whose goal is to understand these molecular machines and their 

controls so well that we can use and even 

redesign them to address DOE and national 

needs. The possibilities are powerful and 

diverse:

• Plants that take up and retain more carbon 

from the atmosphere.

• Plants that grow faster or in places they 

wouldn’t normally grow are easier to harvest 

or contain material more easily converted to 

clean energy.

• Microbes that convert sunlight or biomass to 

energy products without carbon dioxide as a 

byproduct. 

• Microbes or communities of microbes able 

to increase the amount of carbon dioxide 

that soils and oceans can “permanently” 

remove from the atmosphere.

• Human-made molecular machines based on 

biological design principles that can be used 

to do all of these things more efficiently and 

more productively than their natural 

biological counterparts.

Genomes to Life is a program that builds on the 

success of genomics research and on the Office 

of Science’s capabilities in the physical and 

computational sciences as well as the remarkable diversity of Nature’s own evolutionary 

designs. The Genomes to Life program will use 

a systems-level understanding of complex 

biological systems to develop biotechnology 

solutions for energy security.

For further information on this subject contact:

Dr. Ari Patrinos, Director 

Office of Biological & Environmental Research 

301-903-3251

Ari.Patrinos@science.doe.gov