US DoE invests $3m in clean-up.(bioremediation research gets finance)

Bioremediation has received a major boost in the US with the awarding by the US Department of Energy's (DOE) office of science of $3m to a project headed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to build on progress made through a three-year consortium in sequencing the genome of seven strains of Shewanella oneidensis, a relatively common bacterium with diverse capabilities.

The research could have a major impact on the two trillion gallons of heavy metal contaminated groundwater and 75m [m.sup.3] of soil and subsurface sediment at various DoE and other sites in the US.

The other institutions involved in the project include the University of Tennessee, the Oak …