Biomolecular and Natural Organic Matter Controls on Metal Behavior in Complex Mineral-Aqueous Systems
July 29, 2026
Overview
EMSL 2026 Summer School: Day 3.
The U.S. is focused on increasing and strengthening a domestic supply of critical minerals and materials (CMMs) to provide the nation with energy independence and sustainable energy technologies.
For one week in July, researchers of all career levels, including graduate students, joined national laboratory and academic experts at EMSL 2026 Summer School to explore methods used to uncover the molecular properties and behavior of CMMs.
Check out recorded presentations from Day 3 using the navigation menu at left.
- Session 1: Natural Organic Matter and Metal Capacity in Complex Systems
- Session 2: Metabolites and Small Molecules - Mobility, Selectivity, Redox
- Session 3: Advanced Methods for Understanding Critical Minerals and Materials Biogeochemistry
- Session 4: Proteins and Macromolecules - Directionality and Rate Control
- Session 5: Discovery of Lanthanide-binding Proteins and Metabolites in Pseudomonas putida via High-throughput Computational and Experimental Workflows
Natural Organic Matter and Metal Capacity in Complex Systems
Will Kew (Chemist, EMSL) discusses:
- Natural organic matter (NOM) as a reservoir, buffer, and long-term controller of metal speciation
- Chelation capacity vs. binding strength
- Heteroatom chemistry, aromatic, and redox buffering
- Mineral associated vs. DOM
- FTICR and LC-FTICR for NOM composition/chemodiversity
- Typical experimental workflows, data products
- What ICR tells you, and what it doesn't
Metabolites and Small Molecules: Mobility, Selectivity, Redox
Nathalie Munoz (Chemist, EMSL) as she discusses:
- Roles of small molecules in metal transport, solubilization, sequestration, redox
- Biotic vs. abiotic production of metal interacting metabolites
- Short timescale control on metal
- Metallophores, organic acids, sugars, amino acids, lipids
- LCMS, GCMS Metabolomics, lipidomics
- NMR
- Workflows, confidence, uncertainty
Advanced Methods for Understanding Critical Minerals and Materials Biogeochemistry
Eric Walter (Chemist, EMSL) discusses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), workflows, confidence, and uncertainty.
Proteins and Macromolecules: Directionality and Rate Control
Ashley Ives (Postdoctoral Researcher, EMSL) discusses:
- Proteins as controllers of metal uptake, redox, and biological function
- Transporters, metalloproteins, and storage proteins
- Biological selectivity (metals)
- Native mass spectrometry (MS)
- Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and CryoEM
- How protein level insight connects to omics-scale inference
Discovery of Lanthanide-binding Proteins and Metabolites in Pseudomonas putida via High-throughput Computational and Experimental Workflows
Kalen Rasmussen (Microbiologist, National Laboratory of the Rockies) presents: "Discovery of Lanthanide-binding Proteins and Metabolites in Pseudomonas putida via High-throughput Computational and Experimental Workflows."