Department of Energy Funds a Knowledgebase of Plant and Microbial Life

photo of sergei maslovIn July, 2011, the U.S. Energy Department (DOE) named Sergei Maslov of the Laufer Center and Brookhaven National Laboratory to be one of four co-principal investigators creating a knowledgebase of plant and microbial life.

This is a $12-million program to create, not a database, but a knowledgebase (called Kbase) of genetic and other high-throughput information on plant and microbial communities. Michael Schatz of the Laufer Center and CSHL is a co-investigator.
The Kbase will enable scientists to develop new knowledge through free and open access to diverse biological data and models, modeling, analytical and simulation software and inventories of results (described in the DOE's Systems Biology Knowledgebase for a New Era in Biology workshop report).The flow of science collaboration through the Kbase, from the U.S. Department of Energy Genomic Science program (http://genomicscience.energy.gov).