Bioscience, Biosecurity, Health

Conversion of algae to biofuels requires dewatering before extracting usable products—a daunting task since the mass of water in a growth pond exceeds that of the algae by 999 to one. Recently, LANL physicists and bioscientists genetically engineered magnetic algae to investigate a novel harvesting method: pulling algae from the water with a magnet. This project is in early stages, and the LANL team is working to optimize it.

Overview

1:08

Director McMillan on reducing global threats

The security of human health is inextricably tied to our relationships with plants, animals, and our environment.

As the world population climbs above 7 billion, an understanding of these interrelationships is critical, since diseases can be transmitted faster than ever before through dense populations and rapid travel.

Human contact with disease in animal populations or through bioterrorism can cause epidemics and even pandemics. Increased global temperatures can also contribute to disease—in humans, as well as in agriculture. In addition, lack of health, food, or energy can all lead to social unrest. 

These become national security issues of concern to Los Alamos. 

Los Alamos bioscientist Cliff Unkefer monitors algae’s growth. Unkefer and his colleague Pete Silks recently demonstrated a high-yielding chemical process to convert triglycerides obtained from algal lipids into high-energy hydrocarbon biofuels for aviation. The process removes oxygen atoms from the algal triglycerides and reforms the resulting high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons into lower-molecular-weight hydrocarbons that can vaporize and ignite quickly.

Research directions

Biological research at LANL addresses many societal needs such as biosecurity, public health, energy security, and environmental sustainability, with projects such as

• improving the detection of disease-causing bacteria and viruses
• optimizing plants and microorganisms for agriculture and biofuels
• investigating what microbes and plants can tell us about climate change
• studying how viruses and bacteria spread during epidemics

History

Biological research at LANL dates from its very early days, when the Atomic Energy Commission established health research units in the wartime laboratories to investigate the effects of radiation on living organisms.

Seventy years later, bioscience research at LANL is now a unique, interdisciplinary endeavor involving about 400 scientists from 12 divisions. 

These scientists integrate experiment, theory, and computational biology and bioinformatics to address global security challenges to health, energy, and the environment.