Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)

We're proud to support the Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories (OPAL) project at @ENERGY. Learn how the Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2) at EMSL plays a pivotal role in OPAL's efforts.

Congratulations to Scott Baker for receiving the Charles D. Scott Award from @SIMB_Microbio! 🎉 Scott is the microbial molecular phenotyping leader at EMSL and @PNNLab. This award recognizes his work related to the production of fuels and chemicals. 📲 bit.ly/480rgY3

Is there a faster, less resource‑intensive way of making reliable predictions about soil microbial communities at a continental scale? 🦠 Perhaps! Check out promising findings from a @uwmadison research team. 📲 bit.ly/3PW4TNl

Congrats to Margaret Cheung on being named a @aaas fellow! "I feel honored. I strive to use science to benefit society and serve humanity," she says. "It's a significant part of my work, and this is a recognition of those efforts by my peers." 📲 bit.ly/4uRN95L

The inaugural 2026 EMSL-@jgi Joint User Meeting was a success! 🎉 Check out this video featuring scenes of attendees gathered in rooms big and small to listen to speakers, take part in collaborative discussions, explore research posters, and network.

Join us for an EMSL LEARN webinar and learn how to optimize your biological and omics studies through robust experimental design, from foundational statistical principles to scalable automation. 📅 March 25 🕛 Noon – 1 p.m. PDT 📲 Register: bit.ly/4cFRQsE

We recently welcomed Bindu Nair, associate director of Basic Energy Sciences at @doescience, to our national user facility to discuss our geochemistry work and tour the Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2), an autonomous biological discovery platform.

We're #hiring for two roles within our Instrument Development and Automation Laboratory. All applications are due 4/4/26: Lab Automation & Robotics Engineer 3 📲 Apply: bit.ly/4ruCQS6 Lab Automation Engineer/Scientist 2 📲 Apply: bit.ly/4unQZTN

Join us for an EMSL LEARN webinar on single-cell omics, highlighting our user facility's cutting-edge platforms for exploring transcriptomes and proteomes at the highest level of biological resolution. 📅 March 11 (Wed.) 🕛 Noon – 1 p.m. PDT Register: bit.ly/4r7eq0H

Congratulations to EMSL and @PNNLab bioanalytical chemist Mary Lipton for being named a fellow with @ASBMB and selected to serve as the non-academic representative on the steering committee for the Biological Sciences Section at @aaas! 🎉 bit.ly/4aZyTzH

Join us for an EMSL LEARN webinar on spatial metabolomics, EMSL's suite of capabilities for visualizing metabolic processes and chemical distributions in complex samples! 📅 February 25 (Wed.) 🕛 Noon – 1 p.m. PST Register now: bit.ly/4an5cbP

Want to support the advancement of biological and environmental science? We're #hiring a full-time Project Manager to do just that! The ideal candidate is a great collaborator and committed to continual process improvement. Apps due: 2/24/26. Learn more ⤵️ bit.ly/3MpF6M5

In the last three months, we've made two announcements that have offered a glimpse of the future of lab automation: a new 97-instrument autonomous lab at the @EMSLscience at @PNNLab and our work with @OpenAI's GPT-5 to achieve a 40% improvement over state-of-the-art in cell-free protein synthesis. Today at #SLAS2026, catch Joy Jiao of OpenAI, Todd Edwards of EMSL/PNNL, and our very own Will Serber for a tutorial on designing, deploying, and scaling autonomous labs at 12:00pm | Register at: tinyurl.com/3zv22b72 Then, at 1:00pm watch our CEO @jrkelly and @Nick___Edwards of @readysetpotato share an insider’s view of how leading organizations are deploying automation today at their NexusXp Fireside Chat, "The Road to Self-Driving Labs." Register at: tinyurl.com/4n35fwnx

Letters of intent for the FY27 FICUS Research proposal call are due February 19 at 5 p.m. PST! 📅 Don't miss your chance to utilize staff expertise and resources from multiple institutions through a single project. Submit your letter of intent ⤵️ bit.ly/4awBAsm

Don't miss your chance to attend the 2026 EMSL-@jgi Joint User Meeting from March 3–5 in Seattle! 📅 Feb. 3 - Registration and abstract submission (for presenters) deadline Register now ⤵️ bit.ly/4qROSWh

Join us for an EMSL LEARN webinar on TerraForms, our user facility's innovative platform for controlling environmental experiments and advancing predictive modeling! 📅 February 4 (Wed.) 🕛 Noon – 1 p.m. PST Register now: bit.ly/4bUuYFg

Letters of intent for the FY27 FICUS EMSL-ARM proposal call are due Feb. 4! 📅 Don't miss your chance to access resources and scientific expertise at both user facilities at no cost to you through the FICUS program. Learn more and submit your letter: bit.ly/3ZpM0nc

These findings reveal soil respiration dynamics cannot be explained by organic matter chemistry alone, emphasizing the need to link molecular diversity with microbial metabolism to guide future models of soil function and resource use in bioenergy and biomanufacturing systems.

Using data from advanced chemical analyses of soil samples from the Molecular Observation Network (MONet), researchers found the molecular diversity of dissolved organic matter influences microbial respiration in different ways depending on soil conditions.bit.ly/4pM1uN4

DEADLINE FEB. 3: Don't miss @mhgarci1 of @BerkeleyLab at this year's Integrating Experimentation with Data Annual Meeting, during our session on Integrating Data and Modeling for Systemic Insights. (In collaboration with @EMSLscience) More info: usermeeting.jgi.doe.gov