Genomic Science Program

DOE Genomics Timeline

Program Developments

This page outlines progress, announcements, and pivotal documents in the growth of the DOE Genomic Science Program as well as predecessor DOE genome programs including the Human Genome Project.

2009

• October: DOE JGI, Others, Propose a New set of Standards to build on Bermuda Standard. A group of researchers from several sequencing centers, including the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the Sanger Institute and the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Jumpstart Consortium sequencing institutes, has proposed a new set of standards that expand upon the so-called “Bermuda standard.” In the October 9 issue of the journal Science, they propose four additional categories between “draft” and “finished” status that reflect varying levels of completeness. See press release. See Science.
• September: Genomics:GTL now the Genomic Science Program.
• July. USDA and DOE jointly selected 7 projects for awards totaling $6.3 million for biobased-fuel research. See press release and list of awardees. [July 22, 2009]
• March: GTL Systems Biology Knowledgebase for a New Era in Biology from May 2008 Workshop released.
• Feb.: Genomics:GTL Strategic Plan (September 2008) released.
• Feb. 8-11: Genomics:GTL Awardee Workshop VII and USDA-DOE Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy Awardee Workshop 2009, Bethesda, Maryland. (Abstracts)

2008

• Dec.: Carbon Cycling and Biosequestration: Integrating Biology and Climate Through Systems Science Report from the OBER-hosted Carbon Cycling and Biosequestration Workshop, March 2008, released. This report outlines the workshop's findings and highlights key opportunities for research on biological aspects of the global carbon cycle. Further details and PDFs.
• Oct. 28-29: DOE and USDA hold workshop on Sustainability of Biofuels: State of the Science and Future Directions. A report will be forthcoming.
• Oct. 7: DOE and USDA Release National Biofuels Action Plan. (Press release and Document)
• July 31: USDA and DOE Fund 10 New Projects for Biomass Genomics Research. Departments of Energy and Agriculture jointly selected 10 projects for awards totaling $10 million for biobased-fuel research. (Press Release and Awardees)
• May 28-30: DOE OBER holds computing workshop on GTL Systems Biology Knowledgebase. A report will be forthcoming.
• April 4: Genomics:GTL Program Data Sharing and Information Policy released. (PDF)
• Mar. 4-6 and Mar. 17-18: Carbon Cycling and Biosequestration: Integrating Biology and Climate Through Systems Science workshop hosted by DOE OBER. A report will be forthcoming.
• Feb. 10–13: Genomics:GTL Awardee Workshop VI and Metabolic Engineering Working Group Interagency Conference on Metabolic Engineering 2008, Bethesda, Maryland. (Abstracts)

2007

• Oct. 1: DOE Provides Nearly $30 Million to Jump Start Bioenergy Research Centers.The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it has invested nearly $30 million in end-of-fiscal-year (2007) funds to accelerate the start-up of its three new Bioenergy Research Centers, bringing total DOE Bioenergy Research Center investment to over $400 million. Press Release
• June 26: Energy Department Selects Three Bioenergy Research Centers for $375 Million in Federal Funding Secretary Samuel W. Bodman announced three new Bioenergy Research Centers intended to accelerate basic research in the development of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. Press Release, more details
• June 7: Energy and Agriculture Departments Provide $8.3 Million in Funding for Biofuels Research. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced that the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture have jointly selected 11 projects for awards totaling $8.3 million for biobased fuels research that will accelerate the development of alternative fuel resources. Press Release
• February: Joint ASCAC-BERAC Report on Modeling and Simulation for GTL, in response to the charge dated February 23, 2007
• February 11-14: Joint Genomics: GTL Awardee Workshop V and Metabolic Engineering 2007 and USDA-DOE Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy Awardee Workshop 2007, North Bethesda, Maryland. (Abstracts)
• February 5: Number of Planned Bioenergy Research Centers Revised
  • Press Release: Department of Energy Requests $24.3 Billion for FY 2008 Budget
  • FY 2008 Office of Science Budget Presentation by Under Secretary for Science Dr. Raymond L. Orbach

2006

• October 11-12: DOE/USDA Advancing Renewable Energy Conference, St. Louis, MO. USDA Secretary Mike Johanns and U.S. DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman announce nearly $17.5 million for 17 biomass research, development and demonstration projects, to help break our nation's addiction to oil. Remarks by President Bush. Remarks by Agriculture Secretary Johanns. DOE Bioenergy Initiative Presentation by Under Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach.
• September: First tree genome sequence published; consortium led by DOE Joint Genome Institute. Press release
• August: USDA and DOE Fund Genomics Projects For Bioenergy Fuels Research. USDA & DOE jointly award nine grants totaling $5.7 million for biobased fuels research that will accelerate the development of alternative fuel resources. See August 9, 2006 Press Release.
• August: USDA and DOE Name Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee Members. See August 9, 2006 Press Release.
• August: DOE Issues Call for New Bioenergy Research Centers. See White Paper document (High-Res PDF & Low-Res PDF) and Funding Opportunity Announcement. See also August 2 press release and Fact Sheet.
• July: "Breaking the Biological Barriers to Cellulosic Ethanol: A Joint Research Agenda." A Research Roadmap Resulting from the Biomass to Biofuels Workshop, December 2005 Details and PDFs for Download. See also July 7 Press Release and Fact Sheet PDF.
• March: Office of Science revises plans for Genomics:GTL facilities. See March 28 Fact Sheet. January 10 Funding Call is canceled.
• February: Review of the Department of Energy’s Genomics: GTL Program, National Research Council of the National Academies (Review PDF, 679 kb)
• February 12-15: Joint Genomics:GTL Contractor-Grantee Workshop IV and Metabolic Engineering Working Group Interagency Conference on Metabolic Engineering, North Bethesda, Maryland (Abstracts)
• January 10: Funding call announced for the GTL Facility for the Production and Characterization of Proteins and Molecular Tags. (See more....)

2005

• Microbial Genome Program is completed.
• December 7-9: OBER hosts workshop on Breaking the Biological Barriers to Cellulosic Ethanol: Biomass to Biofuels. A report will be forthcoming.
• October 3: Genomics:GTL Roadmap released. (See document. See press release.)
• August: Summary of New GTL Projects Being Funded in FY 2006
• March 14:"Vision: Biotechnology reenergized. How the goals and promise of the Genomes to Life program have energy and environmental applications," Aristides Patrinos, The Scientist (March 14, 2005); Free registration is required.
• February 6-9: Genomics:GTL Contractor-Grantee Workshop III, Washington, D.C.

2004

• August: Summary of New GTL Projects Being Funded in FY 2004
• June 14 - 16: DOE Genomics:GTL Roadmap Planning Phase 2; Arlington, Va.
• March 3 - 4: Planning Study I -- DOE Genomics:GTL Program Science and Capability Needs for DOE Missions; Washington, D.C.
• February 29-March 4: Genomics:GTL Contractor-Grantee Workshop II, Washington, D.C.
• February: Program name changed from Genomes to Life to Genomics:GTL

2003

• Nov. 13: GTL Researchers Achieve Important Advance in Developing Biological Strategies to Produce Hydrogen, Sequester Carbon Dioxide and Clean Up the Environment, Washington, D.C.
• Sept. 10–11: GTL and Beyond: Data Standards Workshop, San Francisco
• Aug. 11–14: IEEE Bioinformatics Conference Presentations, Stanford, Ca.
• July 22–24: Three Genomes to Life Workshops: Data Infrastructure, Modeling and Simulation, and Protein Structure Prediction, Gaithersburg (Report PDF)
• June 17–18: Characterization and Imaging of Molecular Machines Facility Workshop, Atlanta
• June 2–3: Facility User Interactions Workshop, Gaithersburg
• May 29–30: GTL Facility for Production and Characterization of Proteins and Molecular Tags Workshop, Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago (Report PDF)
• May 12–14: Bioinformatics in the GTL Facility for Whole Proteome Analysis, La Jolla, Ca. (Report PDF)
• April 23: Energy Department Awards $9 Million for Energy Related Genomic Research. April 23, 2003
• April 11: "Realizing the Potential of the Genome Revolution: The Genomes to Life Program," Marvin E. Frazier, Gary M. Johnson, David G. Thomassen, Carl E. Oliver, and Aristides Patrinos, Science 300, 290 (2003)
• April 1–2: GTL Facility for Whole Proteome Analysis, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2003 (Report PDF)
• February 9-12: Genomes to Life Contractor-Grantee Workshop I, Arlington, Virginia

2002

• December 3–4: Genomes to Life draft facilities strategy and plan submitted to the Biological and Environmental Advisory Committee by the Life Sciences Division of the Biological and Environmental Research program for the December 3-4, 2002 meeting. Program Overview (6 pages); January 2003 (PDF file, 282 Kb)
• October 14–15: Genomes to Life Systems Biology Facilities Planning Workshop III, Gaithersburg, Md.
• August 16–17: Genomes to Life Systems Biology Facilities Planning Workshop II, Chicago
• July 23: "Energy Department Awards $103 Million for Post-Genomic Research" Genomes to Life Press Release
• June 19-20: Genomes to Life Systems Biology Facilities Planning Workshop I, San Francisco
• April 30-May 4: Genomes to Life Energy and Climate Change Payoffs poster is exhibited at G-8 Ministers of Energy Summit, Detroit, Mich.
• April 16-19: Computing Strategies Workshop, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
• April 16-18: Imaging Workshop for the Genomes to Life Program, Charlotte, N.C. (Executive Summary PDF file, 20 Kb) , (report: combined file (size: 5384 Kb)); See publications page for alternate (low-resolution, high-resolution) versions.
• March 18-19: Mathematics for Genomes to Life Workshop, Gaithersburg, Md. (PDF file, 266 Kb; Executive Summary (PDF file, 23 Kb))
• March 6-7: Computer Science for Genomes to Life Workshop, Gaithersburg, Md. ((PDF file, 272 Kb); Executive Summary (PDF file, 32 Kb))
• January 22-23: Computing Infrastructure and Networking Workshop for Genomes to Life, Gaithersburg, Md. Presentations available here. The report is available here as html-web files and as a PDF file.

2001

• December 10-11: Genomes to Life: Technology Assessment for Mass Spectrometry Workshop, Washington D.C. (PDF file, 118 Kb; Executive Summary (PDF file, 59 Kb))
• November 27: BERAC presentations on Genomes to Life Payoffs
  • James Edmonds, Energy Security and Global Climate Change, HTML (web) and PowerPoint
  • Robin Graham, Energy Security and Global Climate Change, HTML (web) and PowerPoint
  • Blaine Metting, Bioremediation, HTML (web) and PowerPoint
• October 26: Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Advisory Committee Presentation by Gary Johnson, HTML (web) and PowerPoint.
• October 24-25: Genomes to Life Energy and Climate Mission Payoffs Workshop, Chicago
• September 9-10: Genomes to Life Science Mission Payoffs Workshop, Washington D.C.
• September 6-7: Visions for Computational and Systems Biology Workshop for the Genomes to Life Program, Washington D.C. (notes: PDF file, 430 Kb)
• August 7-8: First Genomes to Life Computational Biology Workshop was held at the U.S. Department of Energy Headquarters, Germantown, Md. The report is available as HTML (web) files and as a PDF file.
• June 23: Genomes to Life Workshop on The Role of Biotechnology in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Concentrations; Arlington, Va. (Workshop Summary by Ken Nealson and J. Craig Venter, Workshop Cochairs available in web-html or PDF)
• April: Genomes to Life roadmap document is published in response to recommendations set forth in the 2000 report, "Bringing the Genome to Life."
• February:: Initial Working Draft Sequence of the human genome is published in Science and Nature.
• January 25-26: Genomes to Life Roadmapping Workshop, Germantown, Md.

2000

• October 29-November 1: Genomes to Life Roadmapping Workshop, San Diego, Ca.
• August: BERAC publishes "Bringing the Genome to Life" report in response to Martha Krebs' 1999 charge to define DOE's potential scientific roles after the Human Genome Project is completed.
• June: HGP leaders and President Clinton announce the completion of a "working draft" DNA sequence of the human genome.
• April: DOE researchers announce completion of chromosomes 5, 16, and 19 draft sequence.
• March: International collaborators publish genome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the largest organism sequenced to date.

1999

• November 24: Martha Krebs, then director of DOE's Office of Science, charges the U. S. Department of Energy's Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC) to define DOE's potential scientific roles after the Human Genome Project is completed.
• DOE's Joint Genome Institute opens the doors on its 60,000 square foot Production Genome Facility in Walnut Creek, Ca.
• HGP advances completion date for obtaining a draft sequence of the entire human genome from 2001 to 2000.

1998

• Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworm) genome sequence completed.
• DOE and NIH reveal new five-year plan for HGP, predict project completion by 2003.
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium sequenced.
• DOE funds production BAC end-sequencing projects

1997

• Escherichia coli (common gut bacteria) genome sequence completed.
• DOE forms Joint Genome Institute for implementing high-throughput activities at DOE human genome centers, initially in sequencing and functional genomics.

1996

• Methanococcus jannaschii genome sequenced; confirms existence of third major branch of life on earth.
• DOE initiates six pilot projects on BAC end sequencing.
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) genome sequence completed by international consortium.

1995

• First (nonviral) whole genome sequenced (for the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae).
• Sequence of smallest bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, completed; provides a model of the minimum number of genes needed for independent existence.

1994

• HGP Goal: Genetic-mapping 5-year goal achieved 1 year ahead of schedule.
• Completion of second-generation DNA clone libraries representing each human chromosome by LLNL and LBNL.
• DOE MGP launched; spin-off of DOE HGP.
• LLNL whole chromosome paints commercialized.
• Sequencing by Hybridization (SBH) technologies from ANL commercialized.

1993

• International IMAGE Consortium established to coordinate efficient mapping and sequencing of gene-representing cDNAs.
• DOE and NIH revise 5-year goals [Science 262, 43-46 (Oct. 1, 1993)].
• ORNL GRAIL sequence-interpretation service provides automatic gene annotations via the Internet.

1992

• Low-resolution genetic linkage map of entire human genome published.
• Guidelines for data release and resource sharing announced by DOE and NIH.

1991

• Human chromosome mapping data repository, Genome Data Base (GDB) established.

1990

• DOE and NIH present joint 5-year U.S. HGP plan to Congress. The 15-year project formally begins October 1.
• Projects begun to mark gene sites on chromosome maps as sites of messenger RNA (mRNA) expression.
• Research and development begun for efficient production of more stable, large-insert bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs).

1989

• DNA Sequence Tagged Sites (STSs) recommended to correlate diverse types of DNA clones.

1988

• DOE and NIH sign MOU outlining plans for cooperation on genome research.
• Telomere (chromosome end) sequence having implications for aging and cancer research is identified at LANL.

1987

• Congressionally chartered DOE advisory committee, Health and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (HERAC), recommends a 15-year, multidisciplinary, scientific, and technological undertaking to map and sequence the human genome. DOE designates multidisciplinary human genome centers.
  

1986

• Following the Santa Fe conference, DOE Office of Health and Environmental Research (now Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER)) announces Human Genome Initiative. With $5.3 million, pilot projects begin at DOE national laboratories to develop critical resources and technologies.

1985

• At DOE Office of Health and Environmental Research, Charles DeLisi and David A. Smith commission the first Santa Fe conference to assess the feasibility of a human genome sequencing initiative.

1984

• DOE OHER (now OBER) and International Commission on Protection Against Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens (ICPEMC) cosponsor Alta, Utah, conference highlighting the growing role of recombinant DNA technologies. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) incorporates Alta proceedings into report acknowledging value of human genome reference sequence.

1983

• LANL and LLNL begin production of DNA clone (cosmid) libraries representing single chromosomes.