Neutrons play a vital role in many areas of science and technology. Neutron science is one of ORNL's distinctive technical competencies, with roots in the Laboratory's original mission. ORNL proposes to apply its strengths in this area to national needs through leadership of DOE's Spallation Neutron Source project, through modernization of the High Flux Isotope Reactor to maintain and extend its unique capabilities for some classes of neutron scattering experiments and for neutron activation analysis, and through collaboration with the state of Tennessee in establishing a Joint Institute for Neutron Science. Large-scale sequencing of the human genome has begun and is expected to produce several million base pairs every day for the next five to ten years. This will provide the biomedical research community with a computerized catalog of the names, locations, and nucleotide sequence of the 80,000 to 100,000 genes on the human chromosomes.
Intense efforts are also under way to sequence the genomes of microorganisms and plants.
Significant advances in the ability to determine the function of genes, within and across genomes, are required to unlock all the information hidden in the output from sequencing and gene searches. ORNL is pursuing a major Laboratory initiative in functional genomics, combining its long-standing expertise in mammalian genetics with its capabilities in structural biology, computational science, robotics, and instrumentation to accelerate the exploration of gene function. Integration of the expertise of molecular biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, analytical chemists, and engineers should provide highly productive experimental capabilities and technological breakthroughs for genetics research. Teraflops computing and simulation science. The use of computational tools is vital to most fields of science and engineering.