Vlastimil Novak
Biologist Research Scientist
Research Interests
Vlastimil Novak is a Research Scientist in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he works in the laboratory of Dr. Trent Northen. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Plant Biotechnology at Mendel University in the Czech Republic. He completed both his Master’s degree in Biotechnology and his Ph.D. at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. His Master’s research focused on identifying transporters of plant specialized metabolites, while his doctoral work examined nutrient cycling in agroecosystems using stable isotope mass spectrometry.
His experimental work focuses on studies of plant–microbe interactions, specifically examining how nutrient availability and root exudation influence the dynamics of bacteria, fungi, and phages in the rhizosphere. His research integrates metabolomics and stable isotope tracing with fabricated ecosystem platforms, such as EcoFAB devices, to enable controlled, mechanistic studies of plant–soil–microbe interactions. He also develops and standardizes protocols for these systems, contributing to improved reproducibility in microbiome research.
Recent Publications
Related News
EcoFABs Could Help Fuel AI in Agriculture
A first-of-its-kind global study showed that EcoFABs can deliver consistent results across labs on three continents, supported by open protocols, tools, and datasets. The reliable, large-scale data EcoFABs generate are ideal for training AI, which could help accelerate discoveries in crop development, soil health, and agriculture.
EcoFAB: A Tool for Combating Climate Change and Training the Next Generation
Fabricated ecosystems—EcoFABs—are plastic, takeout box–sized growth chambers developed at Berkeley Lab to be a standardized and reproducible platform for conducting experiments on model plants and the microbes that live around their roots. A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change.
