About the Genomic Science Center for Molecular and Cellular Systems (CMCS)
The Genomic Science Center for Molecular and Cellular Systems (CMCS), established in 2002, focuses primarily on the objectives outlined in Goal 1 of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Genomic Science program developed jointly by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research and DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research within the Office of Science. Goal 1 seeks to identify and characterize the complete set of protein complexes within a cell to provide a mechanistic basis for the understanding of biochemical functions. The CMCS is anchored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Building on existing expertise at these two laboratories, capabilities for the identification and characterization of protein complexes from microbial cells have been established. We have initially focused on the identification and characterization of protein complexes in two microbial systems, Rhodopseudomonas palustris (R. palustris) and Shewanella oneidensis (S. oneidensis). These two organisms have also been the focus of major DOE Genomic Science/Microbial Cell Program (MCP) projects. The CMCS will leverage the data emerging from the MCP projects, and in turn, the MCP annotation function will be advanced by the characterization of complexes in the CMCS.
To develop an approach for identifying the diverse types of complexes present in microbial organisms, we have incorporated a number of molecular biology, microbiology, analytical and computational tools in an integrated "pipeline."
In the past two years we have met the ambitious goal set out in our original proposal--to establish and validate the pipeline within the first 18 months of the project and begin continuous operation. We continue to work toward meeting the high throughput requirements of the Genomic Science program and to link the data obtained to the identification of cellular networks and biological function. Our overarching goal is to provide the highest quality data for the biological community as part of the Genomic Science program, providing a firm foundation of knowledge and ultimately insight into the relationship between the complement of protein complexes in these microbes and their biological function.
