Genesis AI Fuels PNNL's Biotech, Grid, Nuclear Advances

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is leading key projects in the Genesis Mission to harness AI for national priorities.

Published on Feb. 20, 2026

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The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has joined collaborators across the nation to develop and deploy artificial intelligence to vastly accelerate the speed of discovery for science, energy and national security. The Genesis Mission, led by DOE for the nation, brings together all 17 DOE national laboratories in a race to harness AI for national priorities. PNNL is key to the effort, leading and participating in projects central to the nation's security and international competitiveness, including an orchestrated platform for autonomous laboratories, AI for planning and operation of the U.S. power grid, and autonomous characterization of nuclear materials.

Why it matters

The Genesis Mission represents a pivotal moment where the brightest minds across DOE's national labs, industry and academia are coming together to redefine the boundaries of scientific discovery. PNNL's multi-disciplinary expertise and wide-angle lens on scientific challenges make it a valuable contributor to this national effort to harness AI for accelerating breakthroughs in biotechnology, electric grid modernization, and nuclear materials science.

The details

The Genesis Mission is assembling a unified scientific workhorse powered by DOE-funded supercomputers, integrated AI systems and emerging quantum technologies. PNNL is leading several key projects, including the Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories (OPAL) that will give scientists access to a distributed national lab combining automation, robotics and data analysis. PNNL is also contributing its expertise in AI and electric grid modernization to a multi-lab effort aimed at providing real-time data and analysis to support grid operators. Additionally, PNNL scientists are using AI to enable faster characterization of nuclear materials, a critical capability for modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

  • The Genesis Mission was launched in 2026.
  • PNNL's Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2) was newly commissioned as part of this effort.

The players

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

A multi-disciplinary national laboratory that is a key contributor to the Genesis Mission, leading and participating in projects central to the nation's security and international competitiveness.

Department of Energy (DOE)

The lead agency for the Genesis Mission, which brings together all 17 DOE national laboratories in a race to harness AI for national priorities.

Deb Gracio

The Laboratory Director of PNNL, who stated that the Genesis Mission represents a pivotal moment of profound national purpose.

Chris Oehmen

A technical lead at PNNL for the Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories (OPAL) project, which aims to create a platform that can speak multiple data languages and integrate data to guide the next experiments.

Marcelo Elizondo

A technical lead on PNNL's team contributing to the multi-lab effort to develop an AI platform to support electric grid operators in planning, forecasting and decision-making.

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What they’re saying

“The Genesis Mission represents a pivotal moment of profound national purpose, where the brightest minds across DOE's national labs, industry and academia are coming together to redefine the boundaries of scientific discovery.”

— Deb Gracio, Laboratory Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Mirage News)

“We are creating a platform that enables multi-AI workflows. What that means is we can ask a question, for example, in the language of a mass spectrometer instrument and get an answer in the language of genes. The goal is to have a platform that can speak multiple data languages, integrate those data and tell us which experiments to do next.”

— Chris Oehmen, Technical Lead, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Mirage News)

“When operators often work with tight deadlines to complete tasks such as reviewing data as part of market operations, they can have as little as three hours to make important decisions. We're hoping that AI models can be useful to support operators for those tasks, as well as to derive important information to help operator's decisions regarding power system reliability.”

— Marcelo Elizondo, Technical Lead, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Mirage News)

What’s next

The Genesis Mission projects at PNNL are ongoing, with the goal of delivering new AI-powered capabilities to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery and innovation for national priorities.

The takeaway

The Genesis Mission represents a landmark collaboration across DOE's national laboratories, industry, and academia to harness the power of AI in service of the nation's most pressing scientific, energy, and national security challenges. PNNL's multi-disciplinary expertise and leadership in key projects are poised to drive transformative breakthroughs that will cement America's global competitiveness.