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Todd Edwards
Chief Technology Integration Officer

Todd Edwards is the Chief Technology Integration Officer for the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). He is responsible for guiding the various research technologies developed through in-house S&T projects, or acquired via operational purchases, into a cohesive ecosystem to enable autonomous experimentation in the quickly changing research landscape. Todd works with scientists and engineers across the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), as well as with outside vendors, to automate labor-intensive processes with the goal of meeting the increasing need for high-quality scientific research data and to create and onboard new tools and methods to integrate workflows across instruments. Todd helped acquire and onboard the Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2) and is deeply involved with launching the Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC). Todd also drove the development of autonomous experimentation tools for biology (ARELIA) and the first iteration of the Automated Soil Analysis Platform (ASAP), a platform of devices to process soil cores for the Molecular Observation Network (MONet).

Todd holds a PhD in bioengineering and is a former biophysics professor. After leaving academics, he spent over 25 years working with many aspects of laboratory automation on both the user and vendor sides of the industry. He then got into leadership and, before joining PNNL, directed laboratory automation and laboratory operations at Zymergen, a synthetic biology company.

Research Interests

  • Automating laboratory processes 
  • Building teams that support labs and equipment and develop new functionality 

Education

  • PhD in bioengineering, University of Washington  
  • BS in physics, Haverford College 

Affiliations and Professional Service

  • The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) 

Publications

2005 

Edwards T. C., M. A. Catalano, D. R. Brooks, and D. M. Wilson. 2005. “LILY: Anatomy of a Dedicated, XML-Based Robot LIMS.” JALA: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, 10 (2): 108–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jala.2005.01.003. 

2004 

Gilbert, M., T. C. Edwards, and J. S. Albala. 2004. “Protein expression arrays for proteomics.” In Protein Arrays: Methods and Protocols, 1st edition, edited by E. T. Fung, 15–23. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1592597599. 

Edwards, T. C., S. LaSalle, S. Luong, F. Andresen, J. Quarles, D. Wilson, R. Ito, and G. Endress. 2004. “Automated real-time hit picking, retesting, and reflux testing.” JALA: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, 9 (3): 135–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jala.2004.04.0. 

2003 

Edwards, T. C., A. Marsh, C. Sanders, J. S. Albala, and C. K. Prange. 2003. “Automated Construction of an Open Reading Frame Library from Sinorhizobium meliloti.” JALA: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, 8 (3): 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1535-5535-04-00270-9. 

Gilbert M., T. C. Edwards, C. Prange, M. Malfatti, I. R. McConnell, and J.S. Albala. 2003. “Miniaturized Protein Production for Proteomics.” In Protein Arrays, Biochips and Proteomics: The Next Phase of Genomic Discovery, 1st edition, edited by J. S. Albala, and I. Humphery-Smith, 203–216. New York, NY: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.200300153. 

2002 

Edwards, T. C., N. Malmstadt, S. Koppenol, M. Hara, V. Vogel, and P. S. Stayton. 2002. “Molecular Basis for Asymmetrical Growth in Two-Dimensional Streptavidin Crystals.” Langmuir, 18 (20): 7447–7451. https://doi.org/10.1021/la0118457. 

2000 

Wang, S.-W., C. Robertson, A. Gast, S. Koppenol, T. C. Edwards, V. Vogel, and P. Stayton. 2000. “Role of N- and C-Terminal Amino Acids in Two-Dimensional Streptavidin Crystal Formation.” Langmuir, 16 (11): 5199–5204. https://doi.org/10.1021/la991426y. 

1999 

Schief, W. R., T. C. Edwards, W. Frey, S. Koppenol, P. S. Stayton, and V. Vogel. 1999. “Two-dimensional crystallization of streptavidin: in pursuit of the molecular origins of structure, morphology, and thermodynamics.” Biomolecular Engineering, 16 (1-4): 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1389-0344(99)00056-8. 

Stayton, P. S., K. E. Nelson, T. C. McDevitt, T. Edwards, D. G. Castner, T. Shimoboji, Z. Ding, and A. Hoffman. 1999. "Streptavidin Assemblies That Communicate." In Protein Architecture: Interfacing Molecular Assemblies and Immobilization Biotechnology, edited by Y. Lvov and H. Mohwald, 287–310. Boca Raton: CRC Press.  

1998 

Edwards, T. C., S. Koppenol, W. Frey, W. R. Schief, Jr., V. Vogel, R. E. Stenkamp, and P. S. Stayton. 1998. “Molecular Basis for Ionic Strength Dependence and Crystal Morphology in Two-Dimensional Streptavidin Crystallization.” Langmuir, 14 (17): 4683–4687. https://doi.org/10.1021/la9801918.