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Sandia Labs News Releases

Category Archives: Biology

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Sandia awarded for outstanding work in technology transfer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One of Sandia National Laboratories’ core missions is to help the world through innovation. However, transferring some of that innovation from the Labs to industry isn’t always an easy process. Through hard work and ingenuity, some Sandia employees are excelling at moving technology to market, a feat that is now being honored […]

Stout supercomputer makes Top500 list

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Stout, a new Sandia National Laboratories supercomputer, secured its place on the Top500 computers list that was released Nov. 13. Boasting a performance of 8.9 petaflops, Stout claimed the No. 87 spot on the renowned benchmark list of the world’s fastest computers. Brewed from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and […]

Neutralizing antibodies for emerging viruses

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created a platform for discovering, designing and engineering novel antibody countermeasures for emerging viruses. This new process of screening for nanobodies that “neutralize” or disable the virus represents a faster, more effective approach to developing nanobody therapies that prevent or treat viral infection. Traditionally used to […]

A graphical illustration of the kind of retrosynthetic analysis conducted by RetSynth software.

Pathways to production

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Biologists at Sandia National Laboratories developed comprehensive software that will help scientists in a variety of industries create engineered chemicals more quickly and easily. Sandia is now looking to license the software for commercial use, researchers said. Sandia’s stand-alone software RetSynth uses a novel algorithm to sort through large, curated databases of […]

Sandia researchers use public data to forecast new coronavirus cases

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Global data networks that connect people through their devices have made it possible to create accurate short-term forecasts of new COVID-19 cases, using a method pioneered by two researchers at Sandia National Laboratories. Jaideep Ray and Cosmin Safta used a model developed by Ray more than a decade ago to track plague […]

Fields of gold

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On a drive around Sandia National Laboratories, ecologist Jennifer Payne sees more than wide-open desert, grasslands, cacti and dirt. She notices tiers of soil that have experienced stress, looks closely at the height and spacing of vegetation and recites the Latin names of native New Mexico plants and where they belong. “No […]

Jeff Tsao

Engineered light could improve health, food, suggests Sandia Labs researcher in Nature paper

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — People who believe light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, are just an efficient upgrade to the ordinary electric light bulb are stuck in their thinking, suggest Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jeff Tsao and colleagues from other institutions in a Nature “Perspectives” article published in late November. “LED lighting is only in its infancy,” the authors write. […]

Philip Miller

Sandia microneedles technique may mean quicker diagnoses of major illnesses

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When people are in the early stages of an undiagnosed disease, immediate tests that lead to treatment are the best first steps. But a blood draw — usually performed by a medical professional armed with an uncomfortably large needle — might not be quickest, least painful or most effective method, according to […]

Early biologists catch the bird … and lizard … and snake

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Its heart beating rapidly, a wild gray flycatcher sits in the palm of a steady hand, making side-eye contact and shaking, waiting for just the right moment to escape from its perceived human predator. Mere seconds are filled with fear, connection and protection, and the moment is over the instant the bird […]

Jeff Brinker photo

Sandia researcher Jeff Brinker elected fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jeff Brinker, Sandia National Laboratories fellow and University of New Mexico regents’ professor, has been elected fellow of the oldest learned society and independent policy research center in the United States: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy’s 1780 charter states its purpose is “to cultivate every art and science, […]

Zika box

Testing for Zika virus: there’s an app for that

Sandia prototype dramatically cuts cost, time for detection of mosquito-borne illness LIVERMORE, Calif. — Add rapid, mobile testing for Zika and other viruses to the list of things that smartphone technology is making possible. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a smartphone-controlled, battery-operated diagnostic device that weighs under a pound, costs as little as […]

algae

Plants at the pump

Sandia seeks toughest strains of algae for biofuel production as part of multilab project LIVERMORE, Calif.—Regular, unleaded or algae? That’s a choice drivers could make at the pump one day. But for algal biofuels to compete with petroleum, farming algae has to become less expensive. Toward that goal, Sandia National Laboratories is testing strains of […]

Ronen Polsky, Ron Manginell, and Philip Miller hold tiny sensors surrounded by a warehouse of plants.

Super plants need super ROOTS

Sandia Labs will adapt technology to monitor plant health and breed better crops ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Agriculture consumes about 80 percent of all U.S. water. Making fertilizers uses 1 to 2 percent of all the world’s energy each year. A new program hopes to develop better crops — super plants that are drought-resistant, use less […]

Stephanie Hansen

Two Sandia researchers receive Presidential Early Career awards

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia researchers Stephanie Hansen and Alan Kruizenga are among 102 scientists and engineers to receive the 2017 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE, established in 1996, is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. […]

Sandia

Sandia to evaluate if computational neuroscientists are on track

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Advanced computers may have beaten experts in chess and Go, but humans still excel at “one of these things is not like the others.” Even toddlers excel at generalization, extrapolation and pattern recognition. But a computer algorithm trained only on pictures of red apples can’t recognize that a green apple is still […]

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