And those power lines and then to discover 22 elements that would be much smaller as the pandemic in the us it is apparent the laboratories and programs help to respond to the virus its not well known that research is not new to the lab those that neutralize chemical and biological agents this was used to clean up the Congressional Office buildings in 2001 with the threat of anthrax. And then to develop and with those radioisotopes with those Imaging Technology doe labs house and operate these facilities to establish by the department in 1997 as part of the human genome project and then to characterize those organisms of bioenergy and biogeochemistry also the gcompetition analysis so leveraging these capabilities have a ton of measures against the coronavirus to affect transmission this is why it possesses with the great challenges that expertise and their Research Tools responding to the pandemic and what future biological System Research with the most pressing issue i look forward to hearing from her witnesses to share their expertise on that topic with the biological Research Activity first of like to take a moment to acknowledge we are holding this hearing on 19th anniversary of september 11 s attacks and ask for a moment of silence to remember and honor those who lost their lives and lives who were forever altered and First Responders the brave men and women who rushed in on this day to help. [silence] thank you. I now recognize mr. Lucas for an opening statement. Thank you for hosting this hearing and for witnesses to be with us thisol afternoon hearing all the challenges and uncertainties the Scientific Community has gone above and beyond to treat and prevent covid19. The department ofart energy and office of science and National Labs that today we have the chance to narrow our focus to the biological Research Efforts in b particular that we are a High Priority Research area that is consistently received bipartisan support and examining the complex behavior to developing new approaches that portfolio helps to address the Public Healths challenges while preparing for the next generation of bioscience r d much of this is carried out through the user facilities including the Genomic Institute the facility for sequencing plants and microbes created to have the human genomic project with the sequencing and analysis with more than 200 trillion. That is a huge number per year. Another facility offers over 50 for those to research those biological interactions. Also offers access to high computing with expanded Environmental Research and to make great use of those resources as associate professor and a recipient of the president ial early career award. I look forward to hearing the value of user access and facilities with the other 25 user facilities maintained and operated are vital tools ofmp scientific discovery and drivers of national competitors. No other system in the world grants this kind of Cutting Edge Technology access to the researchers each year. And then to develop the most scientific facilities is the Intense International Competition int with the fastest supercomputer and the genomic data set or to hold distinct advantage of every field of material science and with a largescale user facility that they simply cannot afford this is why the key component of my bill the securing American Leadership science and Technology Act is authorization of the der program which includes the authorization of the Bioenergy Research centers this also is for the entire office over the next ten years the significant investment is essential to Us Investment in Research Whether covid19 are the next Public Health challenge our understanding of these complex systems is dependent on the basic Research Conducted with the office of science we were both sides to focus those legislative days these bipartisan programs thank you to our witnesses and i look forward to a productive discussion thank you chairwoman and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you very much for holding this hearing today and also to the witnesses we need to discuss the research supported the biological and Environmental Research program and how these capabilities are now being used to betterr understand the novel corona 19 virus they range from worldclass genomic sequencing that are decades in the making for those that are used to identify the characteristics and treatment of the virus with the stateoftheart supercomputing capabilities provides the testing that is second to none this biological Research Portfolio has been leveraged as part of a departmentwide initiative the Biotechnology Laboratory with the current Global Health crisis but what we can expect in the future. Not only are those activities so critical for better preparing us to future potential pandemics but also for addressing the climate crisis. This will help us to develop the future which is very important on the transportation sector today however it will authority the witnesses testimony and i yield back the balance of my time. If they are members that wish to have Opening Statements we will add them at this point associate Laboratory Director where she oversees the labs molecular biophysics and the joint Genome Institute. And those in the biotechnology as well as the Public Sector for biological research for science and Technology Policy professor of by biochemistry at the university of georgia is studying character and function for than 20 years and for the integrative analysis and understanding the department of energy with innovation. Into chair of the committee and the university of chicago for the past 15 years to oversee studies with the our and a virus also pointing the director of emerging research of the Containment Laboratory and last but not least a professor with make row bioscience for the research focusing on the Chemical Reaction to the microorganism. And assistant professor of microbiology so thank you to all of the witnesses for joining us today youll each have five minutes for your testimony. Each member will have five minutes to question the panel so we will begin with thees testimony please began. Chairwoman, Ranking Member and chairwoman and Ranking Member and members of the committee thank you for including me in this important hearing. These are my views only and not that of department and energy the history of biological research is fascinating for pioneering Nuclear Medicine and radiation humans it draws Energy Solutions to create new Economic Opportunities because of that foundation and that program is one of the worlds leading supporters of nonhuman and bio research and with the doe capabilities to respond with the coronavirus pandemic. And thats part of particle accelerators throughout the world. Asking his younger brother john to harness for bio research changing modern medicine forever for the doe bioscience capability. And then to tree a bone marrow disorder and a later use names of energize neutrons to treat leukemia the first Cancer Treatment and with that Nuclear Medicine was born. Mighe photosynthesis winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. Because of the deep expertise in research and the Department Role in the initiative, the nation turned the doe and later nih to sequence the human genome. As part of the human genome process to focus on a collaboration among three National Labs to create the Genome Institute, the contributed 13 of the total human genome project and the largest facility in the world dedicated to genome energy and environmental solutions. Ten years ago 1 gallon of iso pinto produced in a lab cost 300,000 but today its three dollars a gallon. [inaudible] that is with diverse teams working together under the National Biotechnology lab established by chris paul and directed by deputy director. Brought together all of the National Labs to advance investigations into new targets and therapeutics, epidemiological and Logistical Support and to address supply chain bottlenecks. The National Labs are now leveraging the user and collaboration facilities to understand the ancient coronavirus is stored in a fight possible covid19 treatments quickly, develop Bio Manufacturing costs for new therapeutics and investigate new materials and reagents for viral detection. Does bio capability promised to give rise to future new tools to reproduce studies biological systems and controllable, fully Lab Ecosystem environments. Something not possible today anywhere in the world. These new fabricated ecosystems are a vision to help understand micro biomes and how they control carbon cycling and could be used to detect identify and mitigate new pathogens in foil systems. In summary, the bio Research Enterprise has a significant history and urgent vital future to delivering Scientific Solutions to drive the u. S. Bio economy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, doctor doctor, would you like to start next . Certainly. Good afternoon chairman, Ranking Member lucas and members of the subcommittee. It is my pleasure to respond to the three questions about the biological and Environmental Research program with the office of science. First, the program has biological research and Development Activity and capabilities and that is a good question, one might ask what does energy have to do with biology and the short answer would be a lot. First lets consider the history. It was established in 1977 through consolidation with more than 30 Energy Related efforts in government agencies. Some of which already did bioscience. Even at the time of the establishment it was involved in bioscience. The origin of the biological research is in the u. S. Energy efforts began during and after world war ii with the Manhattan Project and the postwar Atomic Energy commission and the development of an Advisory Committee to study radiation on humans. This expanded to study on the effects of radioactive fallout on the atmosphere, terrestrial and marine organisms. From the origin of doe in the latest of der they supported a combination of physical, chemical and biological research. This is carried out by both doe and academic scientists and facilities. The goal was to meet the u. S. Energy needs. Importantly due to a mandate there was a formal division between the basic and applied research and the office of Energy Research later named after science was given the task to oversee the basic Research Programs. Since ber is a part of the office of science it supports and fosters critical basic science to meet current and future energy needs. In keeping with the historic roots the current stated goal of the ber program is an ankle, to support Scientific Research and facilities to achieve a predictive understanding of complex biological earth and Environmental Systems through advancing the Nations Energy and infrastructure. Its relevant to todays hearing that the knowledge, tools, intellectual workforce and facilities that ber has supported and developed over the last 30 years to meet the u. S. Energy needs have provided cuttingedge scientific instrumentation, facilities and expertise that ten can immediately be applied to National Emergencies such as the development of covid19 pandemic. As mentioned already because of those people with dni are sequencing with the human genome and having a full sequenced genome of over 12000 bacterial species and 3000 viral n95 plant species and its an enormous, schmidt. Importantly we have supported the involvement of a systems biology approach and use of supercomputers and Artificial Intelligence to help understand and model complex organisms. Secondly, they funded expertise and advanced Research Tools to respond to the covid19 pandemic and a world leading capabilities i just mentioned including the World Fastest computer have enabled the funded researchers to rapidly direct their attention to the national and global covid19 threats. The doe capability brought to bear includes, i will mention to hear, structural biology resources which have led, among others, to a new understanding of the threedimensional structures and will actual actions of protein components in the sars tube irish which has understandably been used. Another example is the work by Doe National Lab systems which includes his supercomputers and system biology to analyze the genome, transcript on the rna, and evolutionary data from human lung samples of ill people and people controlled samples as well as taking advantage of the data across the world. The team has recently published and continue to work based on these holistic analyses a new proposed mechanism for covid19 infection as well as multiple therapy using existing fda drugs discovered through the system biology approach. Finally, the future directions of the department. The importance of understanding and utilizing complex biological systems to meet Current Energy needs particularly evident when one considers that each year more than 100 billion times of Carbon Dioxide are fixed into biomass in this file map is essential, essential largescale renewable resource for energy, chemical and biomaterial reduction. When one considers that fossil fuels which represent 80 of our Current Energy needs are simply ages bio maps converted at the time to pressure to petroleum and natural gas and coal. That is the importance of understanding [inaudible] the produce and can transform the biomass into Material Energy to not be overstated. In conclusion, this carried out biological research in the past to safety develops [inaudible] the future must take the next step in understanding and utilizing biology and biological organisms to ensure a continuing and strong u. S. Energy portfolio. Indeed, the u. S. Should lead the world in these efforts. The results of which will drive a new National World economy. Thank you. Thank you. Next we will hear from doctor engel. Chairwoman fletcher, Ranking Member lucas and members of the subcommittee i thank you for the opportunity to participate in todays discussion about biological research at the department of energy. As was mentioned, i am currently directing covid19 research at one of our countries 13 regional bio containment laboratories and i will focus my remarks as to how doe is responding to covid19. So, earlier this year we established sars Research Core and the idea behind this is the very few of these high bio containment, by safety level threes exist and there are many people with good ideas who dont have access to high containment and so we provide collaboration where we provide both the facilities and the expertise to work directly with sars covid two. This is primarily focused on evaluating treatment and vaccines. Its a little bit on the biology of the buyers but mainly translational. In this capacity i have gained a real appreciation to the value of the covid19 research performed in the department of energy and in particular, i have enjoyed multiple productive covid19 related collaborations with scientists at the doe Argon National laboratory but i would be happy to discuss in further detail but suffice it to say we have identified dozens of therapeutics with fda approved and novel that are active against the virus at least in vitro. The doe office of science biological Environmental Research or ber program has been discussed with a historian industry by re with scientists and engineers to address some of the important questions of today and tomorrow. Many of the extraordinary capabilities of der has nurtured have been foundational to a specific response to covid19 which is the virtual biotechnology library with a consortium of all National Laboratories each with core keep abilities that are relevant to the threats posed by covid19 and they leverage expertise and technology that synergistically interject with each other and to advance our fight against covid19. This effort capitalizes on long held expertise in der and unequaled strengths, particularly solving structures with proteins, what they look like and how to target them with drugs or neutralizing antibodies and supercomputing to stimulate billions of potential drug target interactions and this amplifies our current pharmacy with the goal of capabilities by orders of magnitude. It is in these two areas i have collaborated with doe scientists. I have worked together to identify multiple drug candidates who have scientists. Other areas with emphasis include genome sequencing to track the evolution and potential development of resistance to treatments, fda epidemiological and Logistical Support protected databases have that would host Patient Health data for research and analysis and Manufacturing Capabilities to address supply chain bottlenecks in areas such as ppe and ventilators and testing of clinical and nonclinical samples and more recently our project designed to address open questions about the mechanisms of sars covid Trans Mission that will help approaches to interrupt chain infections and inform strategies that guide our redemption to normal activities. The coordinated response of the addresses critical needs and developing effective cures and vaccines that will help end the pandemic and as applies to the future will help provide a framework with how to more be more responsive to the coming pandemics because this wont be the last one. Thank you for your time. And q much, doctor randall. We will now hear from doctor brayton. Chairwoman fletcher, Ranking Member lucas and rest of the committee thank you for inviting me today. Have you heard of biological research and i am here to tell you how the history of biological research is active today and perhaps best manifested by ongoing investment, including those with the gpi and Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory amongst more than 20 other facilities. Although i am not directly affiliated with these facilities are represent the experience of self titled super user. Since my laboratories inception in 2014 i have managed [inaudible] from a narrative i want to take away the message for the user facilities and especially can benefit the early stages of their independent program. Starting a Research Program is much like starting your own Small Business and [inaudible] [inaudible] use facilities play a vital role in my career to maximize my assessment. They allow me to scale my scientific beyond what is possible with a small workforce and they provide access to equipment beyond what was located and third they network to me with experts with cutting edge in their field. My early collaborations led to publications that developed me as a Research Leader in a few short years paid generated data has provided my independence. National foundation. [inaudible] it benefits things scientists benefit capability because we collect data streams and content is subsequently posited in shared community databanks. In summary, these facilities are invaluable resources that amplify innovation and extend our scientific enterprise. I know today we talk about biology we must address the dominant issue in Public Health, covid19. Doe direct comp will be articulated [inaudible] in area i can speak to is this idea of translational investment. Essentially how this investment at one point in the arena energizes across other parallel scientific discovery. You dont have to know biology but detangling invisible microbes [inaudible] technologies that my colleagues use other systems and moreover even prior to the pandemic doe was leaving investment in bio metrics at the [inaudible] research from my group has recovered new viruses for modulating this new cycle. Currently fueled by support teams i am a part of provides new software for these Environmental Data as well as defining the biochemistry enigmatic with the viruses. In summary, we have developed a foundational expertise and technology that can lead and be translated to epidemiological solutions today and future Public Health challenges. Lastly despite the advanced capabilities looking to the future of our areas currently they are being generated by corresponding [inaudible] this means we have thousands and tens of thousands of genes that lack any known function or more positively this means theres a huge reservoir of applications. What three areas are needed is Actionable Knowledge and we need a coordinated and enabled pattern recognition [inaudible] last, it creates a multi higher risk collaboration and in summary the streamlined cross disciplinary scientific vision will allow us to embark on a new era of decoding biological information that heavily leverages dods infrastructure. Trailblazing will result in innovations, Environmental Engineering and healthrelated challenges for subsequent generations. I thank you for your time. Thank you. We will now proceed with our first round of questions and i recognize myself for five minutes. This i have is a broad question directed at all the witnesses so happy for you all to take this in any order you choose to share with us between each other a question about what has happened basically in response to the pandemic they lost their National Laboratory and to start to mobilize the research in 17 new labs. I would like to [inaudible] if so, why and if you could touch on your responses may be in what way could the activity help us in general and how has the creation influenced operations or change the partnership between the National Laboratories or with academia and the private sector. I would love to turn it back to the panel for your thoughts on that question and maybe we will go back in order we could start again with the doctor. Thank you for that question. I will tackle a couple of parts of it. The first being do i think the mv bl should continue . I think there are number of good reasons why the mv bl should continue. One being that it is likely that this will not be the only pandemic that we will see and it would be a missed opportunity not to have an mv bl poised and ready to tackle the next one. You also asked about how has this influence or the creation of the mv bl and the coronavirus and close partnerships . Having been at a national lab for number of years now i have never seen more collaboration across the national lab, working synergistically on a column problem with different pieces of it in ways we are now doing as a consequence of the mv bl. Thank you, doctor maxson. If i could be the last one to speak im not directly influence and want to read up a little b bit. Absolutely. I will come back to you. I am not directly affiliated with the mv bl as well but when i was talking about the future of discoveries and how we can categorize and build around essential units as a theme mv bl has allowed that. It was a problem and we base with the Research Community and it disciplinary themes that have not worked together before and thats the heart and soul of this future innovation to address realtime problems [inaudible] i would like to first say what doctor maxxon said which is that there will be future pandemics and i think there is a history of investing gratefully as an emergency and then forgetting. The anthrax is an example of where we had bio events apparatus was heavily invested in and it was no longer supported and what works and doesnt work in our response to the current pandemic that can really help of how they respond to the next one. From my personal interactions the advances are tumor collaboration and forward multi prominent to address multiple disparities with this pandemic. I talk about my own experience and talk about the capabilities to sell protein structures and i benefited in that while we got sars could be up and running colleagues a few blocks away at argonne already saw some of the most important for teens that are already drug targets. We stream to them to give them the drugs and within one week they can share where the drug is bind to that program and how to make that better and how the drug works. It is spectacular and the other aspect i have highlighted is supercomputing. The typical drug company has compound libraries of one to 3 million so there is a consortium of supercomputing that is basically put together a Virtual Library of 5 billion so you are talking from the corners of magnitude mark and can basically do Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to look at how these compounds bind to these drug targets and then whittle that down to the top thousand or so and bring them over to my lap and we can test and quite a few do. There has not been drug screenings thought of this way and this will go way beyond covid to any disease model, cancer et cetera. There is really a lot that can be leveraged, not only for covid but for future advancement. Thank you so much, doctor randall. Five minutes goes fast so i will think all of you for your Interest Rate my time has expired so i will not recognize mr. Lucas for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman. Doctor brayton, in your research you leverage expertise from an institute and through computational capacities of the environmental molecular science so could you talk about your expanses and working with both user facilities . Sure. So im dont know how familiar everyone is but one of these facility resources you write grants and that grant is reviewed by [inaudible] and scientists so you basically this year the theme is [inaudible] i have written grants and basically been awarded many for my Genome Institute and computational resources. I use more of their like killer resources so they are innovators and have access and at ohio state and Colorado State we did not have mass set capabilities that some have and it was a great example of i did not have resources on my campus are trained experts i could use that environment of data but i could collaborate and get detailed information on the molecular structure of the soil i was working in. They serve that role for many in the Scientific Community and its a way to enhance accessibility and to expand science beyond any boundaries you may have on campus or your department. Its a sequencing capability they have and ive had hundreds of thousands of examples in sequencing. Speaking of access, could you touch on for a moment how the culminating pandemic affected your access in these facilities. It has not changed my view per se. Obviously when there were lab shutdowns these facilities were shut down but i think the facilities are trying to make good faith to get them rapidly as they can. I have not seen a change in my science visibility is due to covid19. Could you give us your perspective from the laboratory side of how covid has impacted access to user facilities . Thank you for that question. Many of the facilities at the lab have remote capabilities, supercomputing and institutes in several of the data handling things happen remotely with advanced life source has remote activities however, there are things that need to get done and we are working very hard now to understand what we called covid controls with face coverings, distance working to protect the workers and shiftwork which we visit for and they try to bring the full strength of user facilities back online and we are not quite up to not at the jgi but we are trying to. From your position now looking forward what you expect in the terms of request for researchers from this point on. I think it will largely depend on what researchers can do with respect to collective field samples and we are looking at dna that nucleic acids that come from field samples and if researchers are able to do the fieldwork that generates the sample that then gets sent to the user facilities then i think it will be a good response and i think we will be fine and a lot of users need net but however the pandemic limits the travel and there will be a reduced demand. Absolutely. Doctor wright, one more question. On top of being a frequent laboratory user you sit on the board and what would it mean for your research and what would you hear from if the user facilities are not updated and with the facilities simply become obsolete . Yes, absolutely. Especially they do a nice job and have a call for early investigators so you are not competing with the people with 20 years of experience but and how to work from your data so if those werent made the biggest thing happened on the next generation of science and early career sciences especially because they do a really good job of corralling scientists and learning how to use the data in the technology as well as getting access so one of the new things is that they are always on the cutting edge. They are using the Newest Technology and so i think that is what keeps them competitive and people want to bring their data and be a part of because of the benefit of the Cutting Edge Technology they offer. Thank you. Chair, my time has expired and i yield back. Thank you. I will not recognize [inaudible] for five minutes. Thank you very much. I would like to use dart with [inaudible]. As you noted in her testimony much of the covid19 research, ber, is built upon years of Previous Research and can you speak to the importance of longterm investments in the program as a tool to cite future health and Environmental Crisis . Yes, absolutely. Ive been working in the capacity for these Research Centers with doe and many der pundits researchers for over 13 years. It is very interesting to compare just briefly academic researchers and researchers are mission driven, academic as was mentioned and you decide on the field they will develop and you do a deep dive and so what the doe have been able to do is take a Mission Oriented longterm approach and then proving them and multiple things at once, they attack critical questions that are Mission Important and they it has been to understand both on the microbial side and on the planet side the compacts array of genes on the plan side to make the biomass and modify it to manipulate plans to help them grow six times more biomass in the field which is led to understanding [inaudible] that can produce chemicals that is led to the developing of systems biology capability and Artificial Intelligence looks at Huge Networks and this research has both a fundamental and a potentially portion of it and it develops a longterm commitment to build on the foundations that are established. Even though we have made, for example, Great Strides in understanding how to utilize biomass deconstructed so to speak converted into various types of bio food is still at a point where there is again much that needs to be learned to make the current fuel and to understand the involvement of the microbes in the field and the biomass growth to respond to climate change. I am not sure and did i answer your question well . I can continue. Yes, with the other witnesses like to comment on that . Doctor maxxon, doe has a long history of supporting a variety of user facilities used by researchers all over the world and in particular doe holds several xray Light Sources that allow them to study the materials at the molecular level. Could you expand on how these life sources have been used to better understand covid19 as well as diagnostic and treatment options. Thank you for the question. Yes, the Light Sources have been critically important in one of my colleagues on the panel mentioned that if the Light Sources are being used to study in detail the specific protein of the stars to virus how those proteins interact with the host is good be important and so that is one example. Yesterday i saw a fascinating presentation by a researcher using the advanced light source with xray tomography to look inside cells infected with sars company v2 and what does it look like when theyre not infected or when they are infected and how can we understand how the virus can hijack the internal machinery of the cell to make more and more viruses. I would say the Light Sources have been very quickly responded to help not only identify the critical pieces of the viral proteins but understand how the virus does what it does inside the host cells to make an adapted toward new therapeutics. Thank you very much. I think my time is about to expire so i yield back. Thank you very much, chairwoman. I will now recognize mr. Biggs for five minutes. Is mr. Biggs still with us . I believe he has departed. I believe he has in which case i will [inaudible] could you pass on me for the moment . Yes, i can. I know recognize doctor baird for five minutes. Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to work with these researchers and see what they are doing. Doctor maxxon, you just finished discussing how the proteins in the coronavirus of what they do in the infected cells and would you care to elaborate on that . I find that interesting how those proteins, dna, rna, the genome and so on, i really would be interested in how the proteins in this Coronavirus Impact cells. Thank you for that question. What i was able to learn yesterday in the study of the infected cells so the experiments need to be worked out and developing some of the results now and it looks like when the virus infects itself then goes through a process of creating what is called the Replication Center and that Replication Center does what it sounds like it should do and that as it begins to use the machinery of the host cell to replicate more and more parts of or pieces of the virus to create more viruses to infect her to then be released and impacted by their cells. It is early to be able to detect what the actual form of infection is that causes sickness. At least from these studies from the user facilities we are just a few ways often understand that but at the Cellular Level the creation of replication and the fact that there are cells that confuse together to have two nuclei in the cell and that was bound by these efforts studies very interesting and still very early days and were not sure what it means yet but getting closer to understand it for sure. I continue on with one more question . How does this or these new proteins, how do they escape the original cell . Do you have a feel for that . Thank you. There is a process by which the cellular machinery is hijacked, if you will, not only to make more virus but to preserve the virus out of itself. We have understood how cells are infected with other types of viruses to then release the virus and particles into other cells. Very good. Doctor brighton, you mentioned your work and getting a lot of sequencing done in a very short time but my question to you is what happens to the coronavirus as it comes in contact with soil . I think we are still in very early days in terms of surveillance and viruses like the coronavirus in the distribution across soil, wastewater stream and i think a very active in assigning research with some colleagues that were speaking to this morning about this was we are basically trying to figure out ways we can survey diversity of these types of viruses so we send for the reservoirs and build new tools we can look at the variation within each virus so that we can maybe start seeing different populations to keep better track of these viruses using their genomes over time beyond just the human host but have better, broader environmental impacts but i think that will play an Important Role moving forward. Ive got one minute left and i would ask you and doctor maxxon both, der in your opinion plays an Important Role in finding the answers that you both discuss. Yes, without a doubt. I just think its a parallel investment. Any kind you get discovery in one and it transcends and fuels another side, a back and forth. That is what the we need to be ready for in this pandemic. I think that cooperation and collaboration is absolutely essential in this basic research is critical especially in times like this pandemic. I see my time is about up and so madam chair, i yield back. Thank you. Thank you, doctor baird. I will not recognize [inaudible] for five minutes. Thank you very much, thank you to all our witnesses for this insightful and incredible, incredibly helpful hearing today. My first question is for doctor maxxon and doctor randall, specifically around does laboratory and their involvement in past academic responses. Hiv, ebola and influenza and i am wondering how the existing research has been adapted or reoriented for covid19 research . In particular the two past coronavirus pandemics, sars and colby one and the middle eastern coronavirus were talking about how these proteins look through structures and they are similar and have similar Biochemical Properties so knowing how we could make and purify them and what they look like really expedited how fast we could learn the structures of the current virus so that is one example of where past Research Really had us prepared and ready to move quickly with the current pandemic. Doctor maxxon. I will also offer one example. I know that from the time of the bola virus pandemic the advanced life source researchers again used the xrays to understand the viral structure and how the proteins of the virus do what they do. I do know that at least in the case of the bola apartment of energy was involved. If i could go more on that, doctor maxxon, how does the covid19 pandemic different from other Infectious Diseases with the impact on doe Research Efforts or the way doe has approached the disease specific research . Impacts, there are a couple of ways. First i would be remiss if i did not say that a major impact of the covid19 pandemic is on the cost of doing research. That has been a significant challenge for us to deal with. That is one. In terms of impacts of Disease Research specifically around this pandemic as i said, bringing together the labs to pull all parts of what we have at corporate abilities for this problem we have people working with the parts of the lab that do Bio Manufacturing process development, never before working on a treatment for an antiviral but definitely doing that now and working with companies to do it. Thank you. I want to turn slightly different focus for just a moment and doctor maxxon can continue on with you. And your testimony you mentioned that the doe research has drastically reduced cost of biofuels and we are looking at not only addressing the next pandemic and does role in research and we also have to take into account so many other factors, environment and related factors and biofuels are going to be a critical component of i think next generation energy. Im curious about what advances are transferred into the industry and what Additional Resources may be needed by doe to help enable the commercial adaptation and optional biofuel. Thank you for biofuels. The way these advances are translated to industry include from the bio industry Research Centers proactive engagements with industries to make clear there are new technologies available in the biofuel space for licensing. I think what is required now there is still a gap, as i mentioned and the cost has come down for the gap and being able to make these commodity products, biofuels at scale is missing and that piece been able to take a small tale Laboratory Concept and make it commercially scaled that is the gap i think is seriously missing and we could get help. Very little time left but thank you for that. I think filling that crap is critically important. Madam chair, i yield back. Thank you, i will not recognize [inaudible] for five minutes. Thank you, thank you all for being here today. We certainly appreciate the work you do to keep us on the forefront of science, especially when we consider the competitive Global Environment we are in. How important it is for the United States to say on the cutting edge of these technologies and advances. We really appreciate it. Continuing on with the questioning that talking about some of the Lessons Learned from previous pandemics and such but not only are we learning a lot about the science when it comes to covid but it seems we were doing things differently, not only from the discoveries but new best practices and could you compare some of the lessons we are learning from a operational standpoint and from the best practice standpoint compared to how we approach the work of research compared to previous pandemics . We use computational modeling and we wont have as much information because many species, human species with more money concentrated on humans et cetera so the data you have for Human Systems is incredible. A systems biology reproach is limited by the behavioral set and when you get to humans what ive seen now is what dan jacobsons and other can do a supercomputers that doe funds we got the second in the world and the amount of data out there both published and inhouse from the rna sequencing and they are now at a point where i did not believe couple years ago we would be at. They can make predictions by running supercomputers and integrating all the data from metabolism mix in genomics and evolution and come up with hypotheses that have a very strong potential of being correct and that can direct our thinking. We have gone over i think an edge to where we will not get definitive answers but you will get answers that are highly probable and can inform the people the go in the lab and do the experiments. Its a turning point that can only become possible with supercomputing abilities and the ability to do the biology. And finally the fact youve got this national set up where you interact with a bunch of specialists whether academic or in the labs to inform the information as the results are interpreted. Thank you. I was going to follow that up and say i agree completely. The speed of sequencing and so far has ramped up so fast that within discovery of the [inaudible] we had a sequence within the week and all the companies they are rushing out the vaccines and knew how to synthesize and get their vaccine to where they are getting these vaccine candidates. There will be years before we traditionally have and so these platforms were all developed for things that were not stars and stars could be related and so really there is a lot of platforms and best practices in place and i note the pandemic seems long but the response historically [inaudible thank you. Doctor maxxon, i was wondering from your experience in the national lab, we can appreciate the Research Going on but then we also note that our research has been under attack in a sense from other nationstates, specifically china. Could you speak to what the doe has been doing to ensure that our Research Continues to be safe . And secure . I can speak from the perspective of the national lab as an employee but we definitely take very seriously the export control. We follow those controls very clearly to make sure that our research and we are looking very carefully at our foreign visitors processes to make sure that we are, that we arent making sure that we know who is coming onto the lab and so we are taking the precautions to make sure our research stays our research. In the last couple of years we have updated some of our systems so that we can keep track of who came in and when and so i think we are at the national lab and im sure others are very concerned about keeping things and the data that we have in our labs secure from attack. Especially teleworking i get that is one of the concerns i had. Could you speak to that at all . Thank you. Teleworking does prevent present some of these concerns. Many Committee People dont have systems that can handle those big scales of data they need to use but as it relates to the security of the data i understand the it infrastructures at the lab are working hard to make sure we have all the right uptodate tools and talk about updating abilities or facilities sadie facilities and labs are important to just for that reason. Thank you very much but my time has expired. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, mr. Cloud. I went out recognize [inaudible] for five minutes. I think the chairwoman and Ranking Member and i have to say its exciting here about what is going on in the labs and my first question is for doctor maxxon, it will be a softball and good to see you here doctor maxxon. There are vital challenges such as the need to store carbon and develop crops for changing climate protection and how important is this for the United States lead in these areas . Thank you for the question, doctor. Its critically important that the nation maintain leadership. We have the capability to produce a billion tons of sustainable biomass in the United States and a strategic natural reverse of sorts and to confirm that biomass into the bio economy product is that includes consultation fuels and chemicals reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions is critically important that we maintain that lead. We are the country that has a lead like that. Is the curled federal investment adequate to ensure we maintain the lead . That is a challenging question to answer. I would offer from my own perspective that more resources would be very helpful in allowing us to understand how to pick diverse feedstock such as agricultural waste and forest waste and in california we have a lot of forests they are overgrown and we could turn that forest waste into biomass into bio manufactured products, fuels and chemicals and used regionally like [inaudible] microbreweries would be a very good investment to make and more about how to change the feedstock capabilities of the United States. In queue. The pandemic has been with us since february or march and you hear about the capabilities of the left to dry addressed National Crises as the pandemic and anyone on the panel has the specific achievements in those efforts that is now helping the nation fight this pandemic . Well as i mentioned more so in the written statement i was very surprised when i read dan jacobsons work because i had to catch up but that systems biology approach identified 11 approved medications that should be able to if the analyses are correct improve some of the effects of the covid infections. I assume those are being looked at immediately and small Clinical Trials for other people on the panel were more experts than covid themselves but this has made quite a scratch and covered in forbes and many medical journals. That is just one example. The other example was the work and i have forgotten the researchers name now but comes out of a laboratory where they used the modeling capabilities and the protein structure predictions. These researchers determine the first structure of one or more of the covid proteins at room temperature, a temperature that might exist and the temperature of the body and that information on slightly different structures that could be important in understanding how medications and proteins interact. The results are completely new, uptodate and informative but i feel now to people with more expertise of covid19. I would like to move on to my next question. I will have a collaboration in working with the pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and you just mentioned doctor about their pdx and is anyone able to give an example of collaboration between the private companies and ber and the ownership issues involved . [laughter] no one will bite on that one. My last question. Seventyeight stanford researchers and physicians issued a lever about the misrepresentation of science that has been spread by doctor scott atlas who according to the White House Coronavirus Task Force Last month this is only one example of the administrations attack on science. What impact does this regard for science have on our ability to fight covid . Whoever wants to step up. I will not speak specifically to that but i will say that public trust in science is critical to get people to take the vaccine when we do get it. That is a concern. Thank you. I yield back, madam chair. Thank you. I went out recognize [inaudible] for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and to our witnesses. I have one very specific question and then want much more general one. The specific one is there is this theory of very severe cases of covid that goes by the name of the [inaudible] hypothesis and apparently this was discovered or verified using the oak ridge supercomputers where they analyze the fluid intake coming from peoples lungs and looking for genes that were massively overexpressed and sought that the genes involved in ras systems with an inflammatory response and Blood Pressure medication. Apparently this hypothesis which was verified on the oak ridge supercomputers wont explain everything from the covid tone to the virus and to the fact that vitamin d is very promising therapeutic and prophylactic. I was just wondering is that on your radar screens and is that a real resolve coming from the doe supercomputers . Anyone familiar with that . It absolutely is. It comes from dan jacobsons work and hes got multiple papers and i read a couple of them. Hes a topnotch worldclass systems biologist and i spoke to him personally and i know him and he works in the center and he because he so good at what he does and hes done one of the largest and fastest computational predictions using computers anywhere in the world and really outstanding. I talked to him about this because i cannot understand how he did it and he told me because he had to keep up other work which was on microbes and plants and this hits and he knew what specific approach and the computers because this is what he does. He takes multiple pieces of data, uses computers, looks for connections and then read the literature deeply pretty he worked 21 hours a day for weeks on end and broaden researchers from medical people and institutions and what we have to say is when you do this systems biology approach and the data looks very compelling and he will say in his paper, now it has to be tested and tested in Clinical Trials but the data is incredibly robust and i believe its been piled up but there many more papers. There are a number of therapeutic targets i presume those are being followed up in Clinical Trials but im not familiar with that. Im not sure but i believe so too. My more general question is one of the trends that people mentioned in biology is what is sometimes called cloud based biology. Thats when you have large robots that will do biological experiments and so this is something where potentially science at universities could sit down in the computer and defined the experiment andtioned touching or owning could perform experiments and this is something where and to engage in dynamic purchases of initial systems, the same way we engage in new generations of supercomputers and the new generationo supercomputers where Different University groups conserve [inaudible] on these things. I was wondering if there was a model that makes sense to have or to cede investments that can be immediately used by universities . That seems to relate to doctor brights comments earlier. I am so excited to hear you say this. Maybe not one building but maybe the companys they may be familiar with and others weve basically have stability, you can login and have stability and greater efficiency. Look at the data in real time into bigger experiments. It creates a more dynamic and efficient environment. So i think the features will talk about how we can do more with what we have and extend our resources. Small university base researchers to compete at the top level as billing to deal with the recent biology. Specifications that could reproduce that. Thank you. Things to our panel, this is going to surprise my colleagues but my question is about climate change, not covid. Number one, weve got to get to zero net carbon nations and weve got to get there yesterday. We need to get there in terms of energy use identify technologi technologies. I have real concerns about what we are going to do where we use fossil fuels, typically to reduce organic compounds. How do we make steel and silicon and magnesium . Biology has been ready to do that. It strikes me that there is Interesting Research products. The purpose and all of these research to d carbonized, it is hard to d carbonized and that. I want to start with you, doct doctor, can you give oversight of any programs you are aware of for what they are doing around these biological solutions to reduce these materials . What can we do to accelerate that research . Thank you for that question. While manufacturing. Yes. The department of energy in january hosted Innovation Summit directed on this very topic with hundreds of companies to come in and see the technologies, assets and programs the department of energy has to do just this, reduce energy and use petroleum to reduce petroleum. Imagine a little while ago the economy, billion tons of it, we are making big progress in converting the biomass into useful things but cant do it cheaply yet. There are a number of other programs, the department of Energy Programs working to speed for the industry and academic partners, the ability to design biological systems to do justi justice, harness them to do Bio Manufacturing. The Bioenergy Research centers are focused on celluloses, convergent biomass, for example into fuel and file products. There are numbers that exist but given the crisis, we could use a lot more help in this regard, more facilities, fermentation to get us to the next leap. If i could, and maybe others, not sure i asked my question very well but making building materials, have seen that but if we are going to take nitrogen and make it into ammonia, and know how to do that with natural gas. Reduce iron oxide into steel. The other biological pathways we can imagine to use biological systems to reduce those . Is there some reason, is there something about that that makes it possible . One is the biological discovery, just two weeks ago, they looking how you can produce ethylene with microbes using what weve never known about. Do it independent of oxygen and combustion so i think theres this basic concept, its yet to be seen for me in terms of harvesting is in overcoming those dynamics and thinking about how we can develop precursors with more neutral economies. We are now able to have the biology and the next phase is going to be these technologies, not some of the plant deconstruction and ten or 15 years, some of the new ways. Im out of time, we will follow up and give a review of these programs. We can continue offline. You are correct. You have five minutes and now we will recognize you for five minutes. Thank you panelist for this information. Things for your comments about doctor jacobson, i want to thank foster for sending the article which i thought was remarkable, this notion of bunch of data, thousands of genetic samples and there is significant thought that this is real, we could be in a very different place in a couple weeks but i want to thank you for letting us know the human genome started and i wonder, a voice that george church, how does jpa interact with nih and with the other folks are doing . Thank you for the question. There are panels who probably have better interns answer so i think ill pass that off to someone who knows about that particularly. Could you repeat your question . You have a joint Genome Initiative and you also have n nih, all the work at harvard mit, how does it Work Together . E institute generally focus on the nonhuman aspects of the biology. That doesnt mean theres not nih because there are things you can do in one system like understand the pathways and discoveries and you can take those to the nih and apply it in the nih so it was typically that research. The discoveries made and collaborators do not have that. There Different Things you can take an idea from one area to bring it to the other and vice versa. Does that make sense . It does. That leads to my next question, the federal labs person, just reading your testimony, i came up with the cbi and jb i, and others, as is the idea that we are micro focus on different places or is this empire building or why we have such an incredible proliferation of separate institutes within the department of energy . Thank you for the question. The biological challenges are enormous and complex. Each one of them for Bioenergy Research centers is working on a different way to attack the similar problem. Its a way to have nonredundant goals to achieve a solution rather than putting all the money in one basket. Going back to your question about nih, id like to weigh in on that as well for a minute to say that the National Microbiota data collaborative is a bran new program intended to take all my come by him data and make the data there, findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable meaning it doesnt matter with the data came from nih or doh or usda. All data based on the vision should be able to be findable, and operable and used together to develop all new theories and hypotheses and experimentation programs. So the new thing is helping bridge the gap. Terrific. One last question. At least women scientists on our panel today, does this mean women are finally assuming the rightful places . [laughter] ill say yes. I yield back. Thank you and great last question and it is wonderful to see so many assembled on this panel, the incredible women here but really everybody in the work youve done in response to the coronavirus pandemic and more broadly, so really wonderful to hear from you this afternoon so thank you all very much for your participation, insights and your for our country right now. We need you and we are lucky to have you. Thank you for your testimonies today. Before i bring the hearing to a close, i want to let my colleagues know the record will remain open for two weeks for additional statements for members and additional questions the committee may ask of the witnesses. With that, the witnesses are excused im going to use my gavel here, the witnesses are
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