Discovering how biological systems operate could guide how we help grow crops for fuel and food in a warming world. Prevent or contain the next pandemic like Ebola. Help keep our nation’s soldiers healthy in the face of unhealthy or even toxic environments, and serve as a guide for understanding how our planet copes with the unprecedented stress it faces today.

At PNNL, our biology researchers explore these systems to understand their function and how they respond to change. Then we make predictions and even manipulate the systems to take steps toward the greater good.

In environmental systems, for example, we know that the intersection of water and land is a mixing zone teeming with microbial systems that morph in response to changes in climate. And by studying soil cores in different parts of the world, we can align past climate conditions with soil quality to make predictions about their future states.

As we manipulate systems, we look for ways to use them for other purposes. Advanced energy production using natural elements to make fuel is an example. Or development of new technologies to improve human health.

Our investigations generate reams of data—a cause not for confusion but for celebration as they are explored in so many ways. These aren’t details that will simply reside in textbooks for subsequent generations to study. These principles guide what happens in the world every day, all around us.

Put simply, our goal is to design biological solutions that make the world a better place.

We know we can’t do it alone, which is why we partner with other national laboratories, industry, and academia to form complementary teams peppered throughout the world. At any given time, we have researchers pulling test samples from rivers, extracting soil cores from the earth, testing blood samples from the ill, and creating the tiniest of synthetic materials that help us better understand our bodies.