Apple Bioinformatics Award Winners
Dr. Ed DeLong
Institution
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Assignment
Professor, joint appointment with MIT’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Division of Biological Engineering
Scientific Discipline
Environmental microbial genomics
Challenge
Analyzing and interpreting the genetic code of miniscule microbes that thrive in the world’s oceans.
Discoveries
New types of microbes, previously unknown to science, thrive in the world’s oceans. Some use new and unexpected ways to harness energy from sunlight.
Research
“What we’re really about now is using genomic techniques to learn about structure, function and dynamics in microbial communities. By looking at organisms that live and function together — and that potentially exchange genes with one another — we can start to get metrics on genome dynamics and evolution. We can also begin to see how specific microbes help balance chemical and biological cycles in the sea and elsewhere.
“For our society to sustain itself, we have to understand how to interact with the environment and maintain a better balance. To do that, we have to know how it operates.”
Resources
DeLong is establishing a new lab that integrates genomic technologies with environmental science. In this unique setting, his team can collaborate with colleagues in genomics, nanotechnology, computational biology, geology and oceanography.
Apple Workgroup Cluster for Bioinformatics
“We’ll use existing BioTeam tools and techniques on the cluster, but we also want to develop, test, deploy and share new kinds of software and tools for environmental microbial genomics. We need new ways to look at very complex mixtures of genes that have been extracted from extremely diverse populations. To do that we need significant computational power and storage facilities — and the freedom to use the cluster to its full capacity for our own purposes.”
Why Apple?
“The combination of user-friendly management and all the tools available in the UNIX environment make Macs a perfect platform for scientists, bioinformaticians and students.”
