PNNL

RICHLAND, Wash.—The world beyond DNA is incredibly complex. While the genetic code provides the blueprint for how organisms will grow and develop, countless steps ultimately shape the characteristics of a person and all living things. Understanding those steps is a challenge that scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and elsewhere are grappling with. 

PNNL is hosting a scientific conference focused directly on understanding, predicting and controlling the phenome—the collection of an organism’s characteristics or traits. More than 100 researchers from around the country are gathering in Richland to discuss current projects and the high-tech tools that are moving the field forward. The Predictive Phenomics Conference: Advancing Molecular Science for Controlling the Phenome, is being held April 29–May 1.

The meeting has been organized by PNNL researchers who are moving science beyond our knowledge of DNA to understand the many other factors that influence an organism’s biology. The work has applications for the bioeconomy, human health, national security and other areas.

Researchers are touching on dozens of projects at the conference. Some efforts look at health, such as why males and females respond to exercise differently or how chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes progress and cause disability. Some teams are presenting new findings about how fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms can be harnessed to create biological products more efficiently. Several scientists are speaking about the tools they are developing, including the use of generative AI to decipher the many molecular signals that turn proteins on and off.

The efforts all relate to predictive phenomics, a pivotal concept that explains much of the world around us. While DNA provides a starting point for understanding an organism’s traits, countless chemical changes determine what actually results. PNNL scientists are at the forefront. In February, researchers Katrina Waters and Thomas Metz led a discussion about predictive phenomics at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Currently, more than two dozen PNNL researchers are conducting several related studies through the Laboratory’s Predictive Phenomics Initiative.