Skip to main content

PNNL

  • About
  • News & Media
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
      • Biology
        • Chemical Biology
        • Computational Biology
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Human Health
          • Cancer Biology
          • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
          • Metabolic Inflammatory Diseases
        • Integrative Omics
          • Advanced Metabolomics
          • Chemical Biology
          • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
          • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
          • Structural Biology
        • Microbiome Science
          • Biofuels & Bioproducts
          • Human Microbiome
          • Soil Microbiome
          • Synthetic Biology
      • Chemistry
        • Computational Chemistry
        • Chemical Separations
        • Chemical Physics
        • Catalysis
      • Earth & Coastal Sciences
        • Atmospheric Science
          • Atmospheric Aerosols
          • Human-Earth System Interactions
          • Modeling Earth Systems
        • Coastal Science
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Plant Science
        • Subsurface Science
        • Terrestrial Aquatics
      • Materials Sciences
        • Materials in Extreme Environments
        • Precision Materials by Design
        • Science of Interfaces
        • Solid Phase Processing
          • Cold Spray
          • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
          • ShAPE
      • Nuclear & Particle Physics
        • Dark Matter
        • Flavor Physics
        • Fusion Energy Science
        • Neutrino Physics
      • Quantum Information Sciences
    • Sustainable Energy
      • Electric Grid Modernization
        • Emergency Response
        • Grid Analytics
          • AGM Program
          • Tools and Capabilities
        • Grid Architecture
        • Grid Cybersecurity
        • Grid Energy Storage
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
          • Earth System Modeling
          • Energy System Modeling
        • Transmission
        • Distribution
      • Energy Efficiency
        • Appliance and Equipment Standards
        • Building Energy Codes
        • Building Technologies
          • Advanced Building Controls
          • Advanced Lighting
          • Building-Grid Integration
        • Building and Grid Modeling
        • Commercial Buildings
        • Federal Buildings
          • Federal Performance Optimization
          • Resilience and Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Residential Buildings
          • Building America Solution Center
          • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
          • Home Energy Score
        • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
      • Energy Storage
        • Electrochemical Energy Storage
        • Flexible Loads and Generation
        • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
        • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
        • Science Supporting Energy Storage
        • Chemical Energy Storage
      • Environmental Management
        • Waste Processing
        • Radiation Measurement
        • Environmental Remediation
      • Fossil Energy
        • Subsurface Energy Systems
        • Carbon Management
          • Carbon Capture
          • Carbon Storage
          • Carbon Utilization
        • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
      • Nuclear Energy
        • Fuel Cycle Research
        • Advanced Reactors
        • Reactor Operations
        • Reactor Licensing
      • Renewable Energy
        • Solar Energy
        • Wind Energy
          • Distributed Wind
          • Wildlife and Wind
          • Wind Data Management
          • Wind Resource Characterization
        • Energy Equity & Health
        • Marine Energy
          • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
          • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
          • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
          • Testing for Marine Energy
          • The Blue Economy
        • Hydropower
          • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
          • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
          • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
          • Materials Science for Hydropower
          • Pumped Storage Hydropower
          • Water + Hydropower Planning
        • Grid Integration of Renewable Energy
        • Geothermal Energy
      • Transportation
        • Bioenergy Technologies
          • Algal Biofuels
          • Aviation Biofuels
          • Waste-to-Energy and Products
        • Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
        • Vehicle Technologies
          • Emission Control
          • Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems
          • Lightweight Materials
          • Vehicle Electrification
          • Vehicle Grid Integration
    • National Security
      • Cybersecurity
        • Discovery and Insight
        • Proactive Defense
        • Trusted Systems
      • Nuclear Material Science
      • Nuclear Nonproliferation
        • Radiological & Nuclear Detection
        • Nuclear Forensics
        • Ultra-Sensitive Nuclear Measurements
        • Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
        • Global Nuclear & Radiological Security
      • Stakeholder Engagement
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Global Collaborations
        • Legislative and Regulatory Analysis
        • Technical Training
      • Systems Integration & Deployment
        • Additive Manufacturing
        • Deployed Technologies
        • Rapid Prototyping
        • Systems Engineering
      • Threat Analysis
        • Advanced Wireless Security
          • 5G Security
          • RF Signal Detection & Exploitation
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Internet of Things
        • Maritime Security
        • Climate Security
      • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
        • Contraband Detection
        • Pathogen Science & Detection
        • Explosives Detection
        • Threat-Agnostic Biodefense
    • Data Science & Computing
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Graph and Data Analytics
      • Software Engineering
      • Computational Mathematics & Statistics
      • High-Performance Computing
      • Visual Analytics
    • Lab Objectives
    • Publications & Reports
    • Featured Research
  • People
    • Inventors
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Lab Leadership
    • Lab Fellows
    • Staff Accomplishments
  • Partner with PNNL
    • Academia
      • Distinguished Graduate Research Programs
      • Internships
      • Visiting Faculty Program
      • Joint Appointments
      • Joint Institutes
      • Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship
      • Minority-serving Institutions
    • Community
      • Regional Impact
      • STEM Education
        • Resources
        • Student STEM Ambassadors
        • STEM Ambassadors in the Classroom
      • Philanthropy
      • Volunteering
    • Industry
      • Available Technologies
      • Industry
      • Industry Partnerships
      • Licensing & Technology Transfer
      • Entrepreneurial Leave
  • Facilities & Centers
    • All Facilities
      • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
      • Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center
      • Energy Sciences Center
      • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
      • Grid Storage Launchpad
      • Institute for Integrated Catalysis
      • Interdiction Technology and Integration Laboratory
      • PNNL Seattle Research Center
      • PNNL-Sequim
      • Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
      • Shallow Underground Laboratory

Breadcrumb

  1. Research
  2. Scientific Discovery
  3. Biology
  4. Microbiome Science
  5. Synthetic Biology

Synthetic Biology

Bio-inspired engineering

Biological systems are complex, but when broken down into smaller parts, we can better understand how and why those parts operate the way they do and decide if we can use them in a different way. Doing synthetic biology with microorganisms beyond standard bacteria or yeast is where PNNL researchers are making their mark.

(Image by Jeff London | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

  • Chemical Biology
  • Computational Biology
  • Ecosystem Science
  • Human Health
  • Integrative Omics
  • Microbiome Science
    • Biofuels & Bioproducts
    • Human Microbiome
    • Soil Microbiome
    • Synthetic Biology
  • Publications

Related Researchers

Scott Baker

Scott Baker

Research Line Manager
Alex Beliaev

Alex Beliaev

Team Leader
Pavlo Bohutskyi

Pavlo Bohutskyi

Chemical Engineer

Some of the world’s food, fuel, materials, and health challenges could be addressed by harnessing and controlling natural processes. More resilient crops could curb food shortages while sequestering atmospheric carbon underground; biofuel could be produced from agricultural waste; concrete and textiles could be produced without increasing our carbon footprint; and pathogens could be discovered before they have a chance to cause harm—all with the help of synthetic biology.

It all starts with collecting and applying knowledge about nature’s biological systems—an area of research in which Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has decades of experience—to inspire new, bioengineered systems that scientists can construct or manipulate to address global challenges.

Biological systems are complex, but when broken down into smaller parts, we can better understand how and why those parts operate the way they do and decide how we can use them for engineering purposes. Doing so with microorganisms beyond standard bacteria or yeast is where PNNL researchers are making their mark.

a researcher looks at a plate of bacteria for synthetic biology research
Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Foundations for synthetic biology

We generate microbial biomass by growing very different bacteria together in a co-culture system developed at PNNL. The bacteria have complementary metabolism, so that one species generates oxygen that the other needs to convert methane to more microbes. The result is an energy-rich substance that scientists can transform into biofuels and bioproducts, such as plastics.

We manipulate microbes to engineer sustainable plant ecosystems for food and bioenergy production—even amidst extreme environmental changes. By studying the microbes and minerals surrounding plant roots, PNNL scientists uncover processes in the rhizosphere that can be controlled to enhance root growth or plant resilience through drought.

A tried and true process for synthetic biology

Using a design, build, test, and learn model, we re-imagine and build biological systems at the benchtop. Then our scientists apply multi-omics and microscopy analyses to characterize the details of the new system’s functionality at a molecular level. What they learn they feeds back into the cycle, making novel improvements to the engineered system.

Starting with a community of soil microbes, our researchers combined expertise in soil microbiology, proteomics, chemical biology, and data analytics to develop a system that identifies potentially harmful bacteria to automatically scan thousands of fluorescence microscopy images.

Finally, we’re exploring how to safely deploy engineered soil microbes to improve the health of bioenergy crops, such as sorghum, while also improving soil in arid environments. These designed ecosystems would be designed to only function and survive among the roots of target plants, so that the engineered microbes stay where they’re needed, while contributing to sustainable bioproduction and climate adaptation.

Scientific instrumentation in PNNL’s Biological Sciences Facility, as well as the Department of Energy’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, are a tremendous resource for our synthetic biology work.

Click to view our team of experts who focus on synthetic biology research in the Biology Division and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Division.

Contacts

Scott Baker
Research Line Manager
scott.baker@pnnl.gov
(509) 372-4759
Rob Egbert
Synthetic Biologist
robert.egbert@pnnl.gov
(509) 375-2540

Related Links

Environmental Molecular Sciences LaboratoryMicrobiome ScienceBiology

PNNL

  • Get in Touch
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Doing Business
    • Environmental Reports
    • Security & Privacy
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Program
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
    • Sustainable Energy
    • National Security
Subscribe to PNNL News
Department of Energy Logo Battelle Logo
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed and operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn