From lemur poop to good old human poop, our waste has a story to tell. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory’s Environmental Sample Preparation and Sequencing Facility (ESPSF) has the tools and technology to get to the bottom of genetic mysteries from the natural world. Facility Manager Sarah Owens can help shed light on the quirkier side of genetics.
You’ve probably probed the upper reaches of your nose to test for COVID. You might have even swabbed your cheek or collected your spit to find out who your ancestors were. These tests involve collecting and analyzing genetic material to answer a question. But what if you have questions about something weird and hard to collect, like lemur poop?
That’s where the ESPSF comes in. The ESPSF is part of the Biosciences division at DOE’s Argonne and specializes in conducting nucleic acid extraction, library preparation and ultrahigh throughput sequencing. Unlike labs that process routine human samples, this team likes some weirdness in their work.
Sure, everybody poops, but not everybody hibernates. In fact, one of the only primates that hibernates is the dwarf lemur of Madagascar. Dwarf lemurs go through seasonal changes as they fatten themselves up for hibernation, hibernate and then become active again. Researchers in Madagascar tracked wild lemurs throughout their hibernation cycle and took rectal swabs from individual lemurs to get samples of their fecal matter. Understanding seasonal changes in dwarf lemur metabolism will give researchers insights into the role gut microbes play in human obesity and could lead to new medical treatments and drug discovery.
It’s not just the fecal matter of dwarf lemurs that can unlock new knowledge. Our own excrement has a story to tell. When humans expel waste, they also shed the genetic material of any microbes and viruses present in their bodies. Those bacteria and viruses make their way into wastewater. Beginning early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the ESPSF worked with a consortium of scientists, public health experts and wastewater management teams to develop ways to track the virus through sewage samples to see how much and which variants are present in a community. Wastewater is now the most consistent way to monitor pathogens, especially those without consistent clinical testing.
Whether they’re tracking a pandemic or pioneering new scientific techniques, the team at the ESPSF is always up for a new challenge because unlocking the mysteries of microbiomes can have huge impacts on our environment.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
