RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Rex P. Hjelm, a Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico Consortium scientist, presented the invited talk, Ionomer Physics and Fuel Cell Engineering December 4, 2019 at the BP/KRF Fellows’ Global Conference in Seoul, South Korea. The goal of the BP program is to enhance the R&D level of Korea by attracting outstanding overseas scientists

Emily Gearhart, a Seminole State College student who worked as an intern from July – August 2019 at the New Mexico Consortium Biolab, presented her research at the Honors Research Symposium last week. The research symposium was an internal event at the Sanford, FL campus organized by the Grindle Honors Institute and was attended by

Co-PIs Alina Corcoran of the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) and Shawn Starkenburg of Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with industrial partners, are starting an exciting four year project built upon outdoor algal cultivation. The project is entitled Optimizing Selection Pressures and Pest Management to Maximize Algal Biomass Yield (OSPREY). In the biofuel industry scientists often

Tom Terwilliger teaches a course on Cryo-EM and Crystallography. The course was held on September 4-5, 2019 at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was titled Cryo-EM and Crystallography in the Forefront of Structural Biology. Tom Terwilliger is a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and New Mexico Consortium affiliate. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is an

Trait Biosciences Inc. is a biotechnology company based out of Los Alamos, NM. In recent news, Trait Biosciences congratulates their Chief Science Officer, Dr. Richard Sayre, and a team of industry scientists at the New Mexico Consortium. This congratulations is for their publication of the article “Fine-tuning the Photosynthetic Light Harvesting Apparatus for Improved Photosynthetic

Andre Teixeira Publishes on Disease Diagnostic and Detection Methods. Teixeira, of the New Mexico Consortium, is one of several authors on a new publication in Toxins titled Recombinant Antibodies against Mycolactone. This research strives to find better methods for fast and easy detection as well as diagnostic methods of the disease Buruli ulcer. Buruli ulcer

Geoff Reeves and Colleagues publish research on Earth’s radiation belts. This group recently published 5 new papers in the last quarter. Reeves is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Fellow with the Space Science Applications group and a New Mexico Consortium affiliate. According to the LANL Space Science Applications website, “The Space Science and Applications

One joint project currently taking place at the New Mexico Consortium is measuring the retinal response in frogs. This project titled Microimaging/Modeling of Retinal Responses Measured with Laser Magnetometer is funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. This project is a collaboration between LANL Staff Scientist and NMC Affiliate Igor Savukov, NMC

Capturing the scholarly record is now a concern to many scientists. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the New Mexico Consortium are concerned with archiving scholarly work done over the internet. In the past, research communication was a paper-based endeavor and over time scholars have transitioned to using web-based methods for communicating and

NMC Researcher Shovon Mandal Specializes in Algal Biotechnology. Shovon Mandal, an Associate Research Scientist at the New Mexico Consortium (NMC), specializes in algal ecology and biotechnology. He received his PhD in Agricultural & Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, where he worked on algal physiology and biodiesel production. Prior to that, Mandal

STEVE/Aurorasaurus Team awarded the Robert H. Goddard Group Honor Award. The New Mexico Consortium takes great pleasure in announcing that the STEVE/Aurorasaurus research team is being awarded NASA GSFC’s 2018 Robert H. Goddard Group Honor Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science. The STEVE/Aurorasaurus team, led by Liz MacDonald, a space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space

Scientists create the largest simulation of an entire gene of DNA. In order to complete this task, these researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) modeled one billion atoms. This amazing feat will help scientists better understand and develop cures for cancer and other diseases. Karissa Sanbonmatsu, a LANL

Symposium on Immunology of Human Diseases Supported by New Mexico Consortium and Los Alamos National Laboratory Venue: Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza, Santa Fe, NM, USA Dates: July 28-31, 2019 Symposium Home Page and Registration Info Immune systems, including both innate and adaptive immunity, sense, signal, and counter dangers posed by deadly pathogens, cancer, and

New Mexico Alzheimer’s Workshop 2019 May 22, 2019 Inn & Spa at Loretto Santa Fe Workshop Home Page and Registration Info New Mexico is in a unique position for advancement in basic science, clinical, and epidemiological research of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, due to the presence of two national laboratories, as well as many

The NMC supports and encourages scientists to offer opportunities to students interested in gaining research experience. Over the years we have had many students researchers in such topics as high performance computing, general greenhouse work, administrative tasks, and plant biology research. Students are paired up with NMC staff or researchers who need an extra hand,

Sean Blanchard, a Linux and HPC expert at the Ultrascale Systems Research Center  (USRC) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) presented at Multicore World 2019 on Tuesday February 12, 2019. Multicore World, which is in its 8th consecutive edition, is a gathering of experts and leaders from all over the globe to attend and contribute

Congratulations to Elizabeth MacDonald and Matt Heavner for their most recent Aurorasaurus publication in AGU100 Earth and Space Science titled “Aurorasaurus Database of Real-Time, Crowd-Sourced Aurora Data for Space Weather Research“. This technical report documents the details of Aurorasaurus citizen collected science data for the period spanning 2015 and 2016. Aurorasaurus citizen science data is a collection of real

Rex Hjelm, a New Mexico Consortium Biolab Researcher publishes his work on Flow-through compression cell for small-angle and ultra-small-angle neutron scattering measurements. This research aims to understand measurements of geological materials taken in the field that are under compression with hydrostatic fluid pressure. Understanding the behavior of these materials provides critical information for application-driven research.

Dr. Alina Corcoran, NMC Researcher and LANL Guest Scientist, presented at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) Global 2018 last week. This conference was held November 6-9, 2018 in San Francisco, CA. The ABLC Global is a connected series of 17 conferences and forums on the most important issues in the bioeconomy right now. Corcoran’s presentation was on Transforming Challenges

Michael Denton, an NMC researcher, and Lauren Blum, a scientist with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, have been awarded a NASA grant to study plasma structure and composition as a driver of wave growth in the inner magnetosphere. Why is this important in space science research? Electromagnetic (EM ) waves accelerate electron particles to high

Molecular biologist Amanda Barry and a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Bio-energy and Biome Sciences group are conducting research on a specific strain of algae in order to determine if it can be produced quickly and at low cost. If so, this algae hold potential to be a source of renewable fuel that can

New Mexico Consortium Biolab researchers, Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, Joseph Msanne and Roel Rabara, have recently published their work “Phytochrome and Phytohormones: Working in Tandem for Plant Growth and Development” in the July 2018 issues of Frontiers in Plant Science, section Plant Physiology. This publication is a review that presents a representative regulatory model, highlights the successes

Amanda Barry, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and affiliate of the New Mexico Consortium, published her work on algae using raw plants as a carbon energy source. This research has shown that the microalgae, Auxenochlorella protothecoides, is capable of directly degrading and using non-food plant substrates for improved cell growth and lipid production. This

Scientists have learned that cosmic ray neutrons coming from space slam in to the processors of supercomputers and cause them to have memory errors or even to crash. This has been a problem since Seymour Cray built a supercomputer and gave it to Los Alamos National Laboratory for a 6 month trial in the 1970s.

Wataru Nishima of the New Mexico Consortium has co-authored a recent publication showing a computational approach to provide insight into the structure of both Ebola and Zika viruses as they invade a host’s cells. Both the Ebola and Zika viruses are similar in how they first infiltrate a host’s cells. They use a surface protein

New Mexico Consortium Biolab Researcher Richard Sayre, founder of start-up company Pebble Labs Inc., recently published his work titled Provitamin A biofortification of cassava enhances shelf life but reduces dry matter content of storage roots due to altered carbon partitioning into starch. This research is also featured on the cover page of the Plant Biotechnology