This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Offices of Basic Energy Sciences and Advanced Scientific Computing Research through the Biopreparednesss Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) under contract number DE-AC02-O5CH11231 and specifically to Taskforce 5 (DOE-BRAVET5)
WHO WE ARE
Taskforce 5 is a team of scientists from multiple Department of Energy National Labs and Universities whose expertise is being utilized to prepare for the next biothreat.
DOE’s BRaVE Initiative
OBJECTIVE
Taskforce 5 (T5) seeks to develop and apply “best-in-world” DOE instrumentation and computation, integrating unique resources at three national labs (LBNL, ANL and ORNL) with University and industry partners, to counter biological threats. To direct development, T5 is applying its capabilities to emergent viruses that threaten human health and food supply; choosing two every year. The T5 team has initiated three integrated pipelines for 1) small molecule therapeutics 2) antibody based diagnostics and 3) mRNA vaccines. T5 is optimizing DOE’s synchrotron and neutron research sources, specifically in X-ray scattering, neutron scattering, macromolecule production and macromolecular crystallography. The data output and analysis is a first-in-kind integration of geographically separated capabilities enhanced by DOE’s supercomputer infrastructure. T5 architecture will automate workflows on centralized and harmonized (for AI/ML) data. T5 infrastructure will be prepared to provide rapid and unique insights into therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines.
HISTORY
During the Covid19 pandemic, the DOE responded by re-directing efforts to help in the national response. “Task 5” was to aid in diagnostics. Our team, directed to address Task 5, realized that our facilities, set to handle ten to twenty diverse user-based projects every week, could be re-directed to a collaborative, deep and broad response to the pandemic. Task 5 contributed to the triple defense against the virus: therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. Our team, Taskforce 5, in FY2024, was awarded a DOE Biopreparednesss Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) grant under the research focus of providing innovations in DOE’s user facility instrumentation, experimental techniques, and data analytics to support biopreparedness and response.
Improve a therapeutics pipeline that takes in a pathogen’s genomic sequence and outputs structure-function information and small molecules that disrupt viral mechanisms.
To rapidly develop and enhance diagnostics, Taskforce 5 seeks to combine two of our discoveries: Protein antigen-based detection signal of SARSCoV-2 and Binary Biological Building Blocks.
We aim to develop a unique DOE platform to rapidly optimize lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for RNA vaccine design.
The Taskforce 5 Portal integrates distributed T5 research data infrastructure, providing a common system for monitoring, tracking, and coordinating data and tasks to facilitate our response to viral threats. Building on this infrastructure, the Knowledge Base provides convenient interfaces for summarizing, browsing, and documenting information related to specific viruses and associated constructs, proteins, and experimental data inventories.
