Registration for this meeting has closed
| Registration fees: General attendees: $500 Students: $200 Postdocs: $250 Industry: $700 |
Thanks for joining the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at their joint meeting! “Empowering Automated Laboratories: Integrating Experimentation with Data” was held at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront in Seattle, Washington.
Topics included:
- Environmental Microbiomes
- Biodesign and Synthetic Biology
- AI/ML-enabled Laboratory Automation, Data Integration and Modeling
This three-day joint meeting featured insightful presentations, dynamic panel discussions, informative poster sessions, thought-provoking flash talks, and instructive workshops.
The abstract submission deadline has passed.
Keynote Speakers
 |  |
Jim CollinsMassachusetts Institute of Technology | Kristala PratherMassachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thanks to our sponsors!
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Contacts
Stefani Ferreira, JGI Administrative Support
Heather Roney, PNNL Community Affairs Consultant
For poster sessions: View poster abstracts here. View poster presenter directory here.
Time | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 | ||
| 08:00 AM | Badge pick up & Breakfast | Grand Ballroom - Pre-function Area |
| 08:50 AM | Welcome Kick Off & Safety Briefing | Nigel Mouncey, JGI Director & Alex Beliaev, EMSL |
| Session 1: Decoding the Structure-Function Secrets of Environmental Microbiomes Co-Chairs: Trent Northen (JGI) and Paul Piehowski (EMSL) | ||
| 09:00 AM | Hidden metabolic currencies: from genes to community function | Kelly Wrighton, Colorado State University |
| 09:45 AM | Microbial food web connectivity is structured by time | Olivia Ahern, Marine Biological Lab |
| 10:00 AM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 10:30 AM | Linking microbial community structure to function through strain-resolved metaproteomics | Delaney Beals, Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| 11:00 AM | Competitors, Collaborators, and Frenemies: elucidating the mechanisms governing microbes divide labor in polysaccharide degradation | Stephen Lindeman, Purdue University |
| 11:30 AM | Decoding viral impacts in plant-rhizobacterial interactions | Jonelle Basso, Joint Genome Institute |
| 11:45 AM | Genomics-Informed functional interrogation of drought responsive plant microbiomes | Jonathan Conway, Princeton University |
| 12:00 NN | Group photo (before breaking for lunch) Working Lunch and Presentations by event sponsors |
Brett Farthing, Zymo Research |
| Session 2: Genomic Ingenuity: Crafting the Future of Biodesign Co-Chairs: Yasuo Yoshikuni (JGI) and James Carothers (EMSL) | ||
| 01:30 PM | Implementing automation and high throughput CRISPR-based methods to onboard and engineer performance-advantaged microbes | Carrie Eckert, Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| 02:15 PM | Leveraging multi-omics to reveal how impairing triacylglycerol breakdown in stomata impacts biomass accumulation of bioenergy feedstocks | Daniel Tejeda-Lunn, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| 02:30 PM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 03:00 PM | Engineering microbial consortia for critical mineral recovery: A genomics-enabled approach | Crysten Blaby-Haas, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 03:30 PM | Automated experimentation and evolutionary engineering of microbes for data-driven design | Adam Feist, University of California, San Diego |
| 04:00 PM | Monitoring lytic phage host range in complex communities using an autonomous RNA barcoder | Elizabeth Zeng, Rice University |
| 04:15 PM | Identification of functional promoters in anaerobic gut fungi | Elaine Kirschke, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 04:30 PM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 04:45 - 05:45 PM | Keynote: Synthetic Biology: Making Biology Programmable | Jim Collins, MIT |
Poster Session & Reception on the Day 1 Session Topics | ||
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 | ||
| 08:00 AM | Badge pick up & Breakfast | Grand Ballroom - Pre-function Area |
| Session 3: AI in Action: Automating Experiments for Genomic Exploration Co-Chairs: Ian Blaby (JGI) and Todd Edwards (EMSL) | ||
| 09:00 AM | Automated exploration of combinatorial biology | Paul Jensen, University of Michigan |
| 09:45 AM | Community-driven data development for EMSL's anaerobic microbial phenotyping platform: Stakeholder engagement to enable AI-ready experimental workflows | Maia Kapur, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (EMSL) |
| 10:00 AM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 10:30 AM | The ExFAB Biofoundry: Accelerating Biotechnology from Extreme & Exceptional Microorganisms | Michelle O'Malley, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 11:00 AM | Toward autonomous biosystems engineering: Ai-driven protein and strain design with automated evolution | Christopher Henry, Argonne National Laboratory |
| 11:30 AM | Micro grow agents: A multi-agent framework for evidence-driven microbial growth media design and optimization | Marcin Joachimiak, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 11:45 AM | Automated construction of arrayed mutant libraries for genome-wide analysis | Alissa Bleem, National Laboratory of the Rockies |
| 12:00 NN | Working Lunch | |
| Session 4: Integrating Data and Modeling for Systemic Insights Co-Chairs: Kjiersten Fagnan (JGI) and Kelly Stratton (EMSL) | ||
| 01:30 PM | Machine learning and automation to enable biomanufacturing through synthetic biology | Héctor García Martín, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 02:15 PM | KBase BER AI-native lakehouse: From data integration to agentic discovery | Gazi Mahmud, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 02:30 PM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 03:00 PM | A framework for chemical imaging exploration, AI-assisted reasoning, and data-worth analysis (ChImERA) with applications to critical minerals and materials | Sameera Nalin Venkat, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (EMSL) |
| 03:30 PM | A novel AI-enabled framework to confidently assign metabolic function to unknown genes, proteins, and metabolites using multi-omics data | Jason McDermott, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
| 04:00 PM | Meta-virus resource (MetaVR): expanding the frontiers of viral diversity with 24 million uncultivated virus genomes | Mateus Fiamenghi, Joint Genome Institute |
| 04:15 PM | Break, Discussions continue | |
| 04:45 - 05:45 PM | Keynote: Toward sustainable, bio-sourced polymers | Kristala Prather, MIT |
Poster Session & Reception on the Day 2 Session Topics | ||
Thursday, March 5, 2026 | ||
| 08:00 AM | Badge pick up & Breakfast | Grand Ballroom - Pre-function Area |
Workshop 1: Single Cell and Spatial Biology Rapid technological advances in droplet microfluidics, imaging, and low-input molecular biology has dramatically increased the throughput and depth at which we can understand behaviors of thousands of individual cells in a complex population. In this workshop we will discuss recent the power and limitations of single-cell and spatial biology, and recent advances in their development at the JGI and EMSL. | ||
| 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Co-Leads: Ben Cole - JGI, Paul Piehowski - EMSL | Harbor Room |
Workshop 2: Data Integration and Modeling Data integration is key to characterize complex biological systems, yet properly integrating multi'omics data remains challenging due to differences in data representation model, siloed data streams, and current practices limiting data sharing and re-use. This workshop will focus on resources available across JGI/EMSL and with partners NMDC/KBase/ESS-DIVE for biological data integration, lesson learned from recent efforts aiming at enabling large-scale biological data analysis, and upcoming developments in this area. | ||
| 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Co-Leads: Simon Roux - JGI, Kelly Stratton - EMSL | Salons E & F |
Workshop 3: Lab-scale Systems for the Study of Microbiomes Laboratory fabricated ecosystems provide a powerful approach for establishing causal mechanisms within microbial communities. This session will describe the latest technologies for constructing and using laboratory habitats to study natural and synthetic microbial communities. | ||
| 01:30 PM - 04:30 PM | Co-Leads: Trent Northen - JGI, Arunima Bhattacharjee - EMSL | Salons E & F |
Workshop 4: Autonomous Experimentation toward Reproducible HTP Data Acquisition Autonomous experimentation covers a wide range of possibilities. This session will cover existing tools as well as tools being developed at JGI and EMSL. We'll also discuss where autonomy makes sense, the data types and throughput with which data can be attained, and how to prepare to take advantage of capabilities both preexisting and in development. | ||
| 01:30 PM - 04:30 PM | Co-Leads: Ian Blaby - JGI, Todd Edwards - EMSL | Harbor Room |
Speakers
 Jim Collins (Keynote) |  Carrie Eckert |  Hector Garcia Martin |
 Paul Jensen |  Kristala Prather (Keynote) |  Kelly Wrighton |
Workshop 1: Single Cell and Spatial Biology
Workshop Co-Leads: Ben Cole (JGI) and Paul Piehowski (EMSL)
Rapid technological advances in droplet microfluidics, imaging, and low-input molecular biology has dramatically increased the throughput and depth at which we can understand behaviors of thousands of individual cells in a complex population. In this workshop we will discuss recent the power and limitations of single-cell and spatial biology, and recent advances in their development at the JGI and EMSL.
Workshop 2: Data Integration and Modeling
Workshop Co-Leads: Simon Roux (JGI) and Kelly Stratton (EMSL)
Data integration is key to characterize complex biological systems, yet properly integrating multi'omics data remains challenging due to differences in data representation model, siloed data streams, and current practices limiting data sharing and re-use. This workshop will focus on resources available across JGI/EMSL and with partners NMDC/KBase/ESS-DIVE for biological data integration, lesson learned from recent efforts aiming at enabling large-scale biological data analysis, and upcoming developments in this area.
Workshop 3: Lab-scale Systems for the Study of Microbiomes
Workshop Co-Leads: Trent Northen (JGI) and Arunima Bhattacharjee (EMSL)
Laboratory fabricated ecosystems provide a powerful approach for establishing causal mechanisms within microbial communities. This session will describe the latest technologies for constructing and using laboratory habitats to study natural and synthetic microbial communities.
Workshop 4: Autonomous Experimentation Toward Reproducible HTP Data Acquisition
Workshop Co-Leads: Ian Blaby (JGI) and Todd Edwards (EMSL)
Autonomous experimentation covers a wide range of possibilities. This session will cover existing tools as well as tools being developed at JGI and EMSL. We'll also discuss where autonomy makes sense, the data types and throughput with which data can be attained, and how to prepare to take advantage of capabilities both preexisting and in development.
