Early Breakthrough for AI-Enabled Biological Discovery

Caption: As part of the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering with scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to advance biological discovery using artificial intelligence. 

As part of the Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories (OPAL) project, ORNL biologists are working alongside computational scientists to develop a new system for AI-assisted data analysis. The interface leverages the Frontier exascale supercomputer and acts as a co-pilot to help researchers make full use of the cutting-edge imaging capabilities at ORNL’s Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory, accelerating discoveries in plant science. 

This co-pilot demonstration built on the success of three hackathons by the ORNL team across AI, biological science, and agentic themes. What’s next for OPAL? Building a platform to share data and foundational AI models across the national labs to further speed biological discovery and enable scientists to engineer proteins, microbes, and plants for next-generation biotechnologies that benefit the nation. 

OPAL is funded by two DOE Office of Science programs: Biological and Environmental Research and Advanced Scientific Computing Research.  

Learn more: https://opal-doe.org/