Researchers at Berkeley Lab are engineering and deploying sophisticated artificial intelligence tools that make scientific research faster and more efficient. Rapidly advancing AI techniques are also enabling entirely new fields of research that were impossible to conduct with conventional computing. From particle physics to electronics, Berkeley Lab teams are using advanced AI in a variety of subjects to ensure U.S. science and technology remain at the forefront worldwide.
Héctor García Martín, a staff scientist in the Biological and Systems Engineering (BSE) Division, is leading research that merges AI, mathematical modeling, and robotics with synthetic biology, a field focused on designing organisms to meet particular specifications, such as programming healthy cells to attack cancerous ones or engineering a microbe to produce a valuable chemical.
Martín’s aim is to speed up the highly iterative processes involved in designing and testing new synthetic biology systems so that new, high-impact products can fill unmet needs in the medical, chemical, and energy industries. His work also expedites the trial-and-error steps needed to grow production of new bio-based compounds from initial small benchtop scales up to commercial scales.
“I think an intense application of AI and robotics/automation to synthetic biology can accelerate synthetic biology timelines 20-fold,” said Martín. “We could create a new commercially viable molecule in approximately 6 months instead of about 10 years.”
