Adam P. Arkin

Divisions

Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology

• Molecular EcoSystems Biology

Biography

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Adam Arkin holds several positions, including senior scientist, Technical Co-Manager of the ENIGMA Scientific Focus Area, and Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Energy Systems Biology Knowledgebase. He is the Dean A. Richard Newton Memorial Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Bioengineering, and Director of the Center for Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space. An expert in the comparative systems and synthetic biology of microbes, Arkin is dedicated understanding the role natural and engineered microbes can play in environmental transformation and health as well as sustainable biomanufacturing.

Research Interests

Complex webs of life integrate and drive processes that affect outcomes from the individual health of a human or plant to entire planetary mineral cycles. Our laboratory leverages quantitative measurements, precision genetics, and model-driven experimentation to predict, control, and design biological function in the context of these webs. We are especially interested in understanding and ameliorating the processes that are interlinked with the radical changes our planet is and will be experiencing as climate is forced, populations grow, and pressures are placed on the resources we use to survive. We are also interested in what it might take to establish ourselves on the next planet as humanity begins to consider long term crewed missions on the Moon and Mars. Building safe, sustainable biotechnologies for environmental stewardship, health, food, and materials based on well-informed systems-level bioengineering is our main goal.

We are also committed to open, transparent, reusable and collaboratory model-driven science as exemplified through our work the the DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase.