Sharing science and technology expertise and capabilities to meet our nation’s most important needs
LLNL engages in wide-ranging partnerships with other laboratories and research institutions, academia, and industry. Many collaborations integrate disparate expertise and capabilities with focus on innovations to meet challenging mission objectives. Others serve to transition science and technology (S&T) breakthroughs into new applications and products.
GUIDE vs. Viruses
With support from the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense, an LLNL-led, multi-institutional team is developing Generative Unconstrained Intelligence Drug Engineering (GUIDE) as a first-of-its-kind platform to accelerate medical countermeasure development. Therapeutic antibody development to combat viruses has typically taken years. GUIDE combines data, structural biology, bioinformatic modeling, and molecular simulations, driven by machine learning (ML) and supercomputing, to rapidly design antibody candidates, potentially lower development costs and risk, and accelerate the timeline to clinical use.
As reported in Nature, the research team used the GUIDE platform to optimize an existing SARS-CoV-2 antibody to restore its effectiveness to emerging SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants, while ensuring continued efficacy against the then-dominant Delta variant. In a matter of weeks, LLNL researchers combined advanced structural bioinformatics with ML and one million graphics processing hours of molecular dynamics simulations to narrow 1017 possible variants of the existing antibody to just 376 proposed candidates for laboratory testing. Experimental teams at LLNL and Vanderbilt University rapidly tested the candidates and identified a highly effective antibody.
In August 2024, LLNL welcomed officials from DOD and NNSA to dedicate a new supercomputing system and the Rapid Response Laboratory (RRL). By making a $20-million investment in these capabilities, which build on GUIDE’s successes, DOD and NNSA significantly enhance the experimental and computing resources that support national biodefense programs. The new supercomputer, in conjunction with the RRL, will allow DOD and the NNSA Tri-Labs to perform rapid and iterative testing of computationally designed vaccines and antibody drugs. The RRL is equipped with automated robotics and advanced machines that will enable simultaneous high-throughput experiments on re-engineered proteins and countermeasure candidates.
Strategic International Engagements
LLNL hosted a three-day workshop with colleagues from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to discuss progress on shared research projects and explore opportunities to expand collaborations, which began in 2022. KIST expertise in the synthesis and characterization of new battery materials meshes well with Livermore’s ML capabilities to design materials that can improve battery performance. In 2024, leaders from LLNL and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIST) signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize and expand collaborations that began in 2018. Another success is LLNL’s collaboration with ELI Beamlines in the Czech Republic to build the High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS)—the world’s most advanced and highest average power diode-pumped petawatt laser. In FY 2024, a research team staged an experiment in which the L3-HAPLS laser, guided by an ML tool developed at LLNL and firing every five seconds at a target, optimized performance in generating ions by adjusting pulse shape on the fly.
A Focus on Fusion Energy
In December 2023, DOE awarded a four-year, $16 million project to a multi-institutional team led by LLNL to accelerate inertial fusion energy (IFE) research. This effort is now being carried out by the IFE Science and Technology Accelerated Research for Fusion Innovation and Reactor Engineering (STARFIRE) Hub. IFE-STARFIRE is accelerating the demonstration of high-gain target designs, target manufacturing and engagement, and diode-pumped solid-state laser technologies. The hub is also developing the future workforce for IFE through partnerships with leading universities and the development of innovative new curriculum. Supported by the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, the hub consists of members from seven universities, four U.S. national laboratories, one international laboratory, three commercial entities, one philanthropic organization, and three private IFE companies. The hub and an LLNL institutional initiative in IFE synergistically complement NNSA’s major investments in IFE research and development. The LLNL initiative was highlighted at the Roadrunner Technology Forum in September 2024, where Laboratory leaders discussed work being done to translate ignition into a viable source of commercial fusion power.
Innovative Industrial and Energy Partnerships
LLNL is benefiting the U.S. economy with innovative technology and methods. In FY 2024, Livermore obtained 13 new patents, asserted 82 new copyrights, and executed 7 new licenses. Licensing income for the year totaled approximately $4.9 million. Among many honors, the Laboratory earned three R&D 100 awards from R&D World Magazine. The EXtreme-power, Ultra-low-loss, Dispersive Element (EXUDE) Elite is a spectral beam-combining optic that concentrates light from multiple lasers with different wavelengths into a single, high-power beam with unparalleled compactness and a 100-fold improvement to the damage threshold. EXUDE Elite is a breakthrough that presents a paradigm shift, offering the opportunity for wider access to high-power laser technology for industrial applications. Two other winners provide significant advances in software: UMap, an open-source memory-mapping library with increased power and flexibility; and UnifyFS, a user-level file system for high-performance computing systems. In addition, an LLNL biologist garnered a Federal Laboratory Consortium award for technology transfer of nanolipoprotein (NLP) particle technology for vaccine use, and the business development executive that negotiated the NLP agreement was recognized as “Best in Class” by DOE’s Technology Transfer Working Group. The Laboratory also secured three grants from DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund for collaborations with industrial partners. In one of the projects, aerospace researchers aim to reduce the computational cost of predictive gas turbine combustor simulations, enabling the jet turbine industry to design more efficient next-generation combustors.
