Featured Stories
USITC Institutes Section 337 Investigation of Certain Systems, Devices, Software, Compositions, Chemicals, and Laboratory Supplies for Studying Proteins
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. International Trade Commission issued the following news release:
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USITC Institutes Section 337 Investigation of Certain Systems, Devices, Software, Compositions, Chemicals, and Laboratory Supplies for Studying Proteins
The U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission or USITC) voted to institute an investigation of certain systems, devices, software, compositions, chemicals, and laboratory supplies for studying proteins. The products at issue in the investigation are described in the Commission's notice of investigation.
The investigation is based on
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. International Trade Commission issued the following news release:
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USITC Institutes Section 337 Investigation of Certain Systems, Devices, Software, Compositions, Chemicals, and Laboratory Supplies for Studying Proteins
The U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission or USITC) voted to institute an investigation of certain systems, devices, software, compositions, chemicals, and laboratory supplies for studying proteins. The products at issue in the investigation are described in the Commission's notice of investigation.
The investigation is based ona complaint filed on behalf of Seer, Inc. of Redwood City, California, and The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, on May 28, 2026. The complaint was supplemented on June 12, 2026. The complaint, as supplemented, alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain systems, devices, software, compositions, chemicals, and laboratory supplies for studying proteins that infringe certain claims of the patents asserted by the complainants. The complainants request that the USITC issue a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order.
The USITC has identified the following respondent in this investigation: Nanomics Biotechnology Co., Ltd., of Hangzhou, China.
By instituting this investigation (337-TA-1508), the USITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. The USITC's Chief Administrative Law Judge will assign the case to one of the USITC's administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing. The ALJ will make an initial determination as to whether there is a violation of section 337; that initial determination is subject to review by the Commission.
The USITC will make a final determination in the investigation at the earliest practicable time. Within 45 days after institution of the investigation, the USITC will set a target date for completing the investigation. USITC remedial orders in section 337 cases are effective when issued and become final 60 days after issuance unless disapproved for policy reasons by the U.S. Trade Representative within that 60-day period.
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Original text here: https://www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2026/er0629_68829.htm
U.S. Department of Commerce Names Andrew Silberstein Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Commerce issued the following news release:
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U.S. Department of Commerce Names Andrew Silberstein Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator
The U.S. Department of Commerce has named Andrew Silberstein as the next Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator.
Mr. Silberstein brings nearly three decades of experience across real estate, private equity, and investment banking to the role. Mr. Silberstein most recently served as Head of Private Markets for the real estate investment arm of Neuberger. Over the course of his
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Commerce issued the following news release:
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U.S. Department of Commerce Names Andrew Silberstein Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator
The U.S. Department of Commerce has named Andrew Silberstein as the next Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator.
Mr. Silberstein brings nearly three decades of experience across real estate, private equity, and investment banking to the role. Mr. Silberstein most recently served as Head of Private Markets for the real estate investment arm of Neuberger. Over the course of hiscareer, he has originated, structured, and managed many large-scale investments and led complex transactions on behalf of major institutional platforms.
"Andrew's deep experience and track record of success in negotiating and executing large-scale transactions will allow the U.S. Investment Accelerator to meet the vision laid out by President Trump: driving strategic infrastructure investments in the United States, creating opportunities for Americans, and strengthening our economic and national security," said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The Commerce Department's U.S. Investment Accelerator was established by President Trump in March 2025 through Executive Order 14255. In addition to attracting substantial foreign and domestic investment and expediting regulatory review, the Investment Accelerator plays a central role in executing the investment commitments made to President Trump by key U.S. trading partners to strengthen critical supply chains. These include more than $1 trillion in landmark commitments -- $550 billion from Japan, $350 billion from South Korea, and $250 billion from Taiwan -- directed toward semiconductors, energy, critical minerals, and other strategic sectors.
To date, the U.S. Investment Accelerator has overseen negotiations for more than $500 billion in large-scale projects across the country. Mr. Silberstein will assume the role previously held by Michael Grimes.
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Original text here: https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2026/06/us-department-commerce-names-andrew-silberstein-executive-director-us
Justice Department to Rename Division as Energy and Natural Resources Division
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division issued the following news release on June 29, 2026:
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Justice Department to Rename Division as Energy and Natural Resources Division
The Justice Department will rename one of its divisions the Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). The announcement was originally made yesterday by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of ENRD in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
"Energy security is national security. Iran's recent stranglehold on the global oil market shows that
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division issued the following news release on June 29, 2026:
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Justice Department to Rename Division as Energy and Natural Resources Division
The Justice Department will rename one of its divisions the Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). The announcement was originally made yesterday by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of ENRD in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
"Energy security is national security. Iran's recent stranglehold on the global oil market shows thatdomestic energy production is critical to preserving our way of life and securing our prosperity," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gustafson of ENRD. "Over the past two decades, the division has played a central role in the responsible production and use of energy, driven by technological advances from the shale revolution to AI. To recognize this evolution, we will now rename it the Energy and Natural Resources Division."
ENRD's recent victories in support of domestic energy include the successful defense of President Trump's executive orders on unleashing American energy, reinvigorating the clean coal industry, and declaring an energy emergency. ENRD also recently won dismissal of a lawsuit that threatened oil production in the Gulf of America.
ENRD continues to defend several key Administration priorities aimed at domestic energy production, including:
* Emergency orders by the Energy Department that have kept power plants running;
* The Energy Department order restarting the Sable pipeline in California pursuant to Defense Production Act; and
* The temporary power source for an artificial intelligence platform with critical military applications.
ENRD's efforts to unleash American energy also include affirmative litigation against state anti-energy policies that are preempted by federal law, including:
* Climate superfund acts passed by New York and Vermont to expropriate billions of dollars from global energy producers;
* Climate tort suits by Hawaii, Michigan, and Minnesota against energy producers;
* California's SB 1137, which prohibits oil and gas production within certain zones, even on federal leased land; and
* Hawaii's "Green Fee" climate tax on cruise ships.
ENRD's work to unleash American energy does not diminish its defense of the environment, which Gustafson called "our nation's greatest natural resource." ENRD's environmental enforcement protects public health and ensures a level playing field for companies that play by the rules. The Division's recent enforcement actions include:
* Major civil settlements with a "forever chemical" manufacturer for water pollution, a grocery chain for coolant leaks, and a steel mill for hazardous waste;
* A $100 million air pollution penalty won at trial against a coke plant near Detroit;
* An 18-month prison sentence for biofuel fraud;
* A $500,000 criminal penalty for asbestos violations;
* Guilty pleas to environmental crimes by waste water pretreatment managers, a yacht manufacturer, a wood product importer, and a builder; and
* Indictments of a commercial incinerator, a wildlife trafficker, and the companies whose ship crashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge.
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Original text here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-rename-division-energy-and-natural-resources-division
FRCE Partners With Reservists, Marines for Joint Readiness Training
PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland, June 30 -- The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command posted the following news release:
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FRCE partners with Reservists, Marines for joint readiness training
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C.--Imagine a military aircraft sustaining heavy structural damage in a remote, forward-deployed combat location. If the repairs are outside the scope of standard squadron-level maintenance and shipping the aircraft to a depot is not an option, how does the fleet rapidly repair and return that critical asset to the fight?
This high-stakes question drove Fleet Readiness Center
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PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland, June 30 -- The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command posted the following news release:
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FRCE partners with Reservists, Marines for joint readiness training
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C.--Imagine a military aircraft sustaining heavy structural damage in a remote, forward-deployed combat location. If the repairs are outside the scope of standard squadron-level maintenance and shipping the aircraft to a depot is not an option, how does the fleet rapidly repair and return that critical asset to the fight?
This high-stakes question drove Fleet Readiness CenterEast (FRCE) to host the command's second annual forward-deployed combat repair training exercise May 18-22. The exercise was designed to sharpen skills and increase readiness of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Forward Deployed Combat Repair (FDCR) Team, an elite group of Navy Reservists and skilled depot-level artisans, engineers and planners and estimators who deploy worldwide - afloat and ashore - to rapidly repair and return battle-damaged aircraft to the fleet.
This five-day training evolution embedded the participants into a scenario designed to mirror conditions the team is likely to encounter if deployed in support of the warfighter. With a goal of increasing operational readiness, the event allowed FRCE artisans, Navy Reservists and Marines to build working relationships, gain experience with real-world deployment challenges, and enhance aircraft maintenance and repair capabilities.
FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. Randy Berti said training exercises like this are essential to maintaining fleet readiness and maximizing lethality.
"Providing artisans and service members with this invaluable training opportunity is exactly how we sustain the world's most lethal fighting force," said Berti. "No mission goes exactly according to script, and every minute an aircraft spends on the ground during a mission carries a massive cost. That is why this immersive experience is so important. It forces the team to troubleshoot complex repairs while under pressure now - laying that foundation - so they aren't facing high-stakes challenges for the first time in the field when it matters most."
FRCE supported the training event with aircraft and a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, planners and estimators and artisans who are assigned to the FDCR mission to work alongside the service members and execute repairs.
While repairs may be performed by squadron personnel, aircraft battle damage repairs often require specialized repair and damage analysis, skills and tools from depot-level maintainers. The exercise was a great opportunity for the depot-level artisans and engineers and service members to learn from each other, said Navy Capt. Jim Mcdonnell, a Reservist on the NAVAIR FDCR Team.
"FRC East's artisans are the experts; they've been doing this for years," said Mcdonnell. "The intermediate- and organizational-levels don't necessarily have all the capabilities that FRC East can bring. The Marines had some of this type of training in A School, but they don't get to practice it. The level of repair that they did here allowed them to sharpen their skills. They really enjoyed being able to learn battle damage repair from a skilled artisan, which is especially helpful because tricks of the trade aren't easily taught in school. It was a great opportunity for us to develop our skill sets for when we are deployed."
During the exercise, the 52 participants were split into three teams. Each team navigated a distinct hypothetical deployment scenario and was responsible for repairing an aircraft - either an MV-22B Osprey or CH-53E Super Stallion - with simulated battle damage.
Just like a deployment, the team's resources were extremely limited during the exercise. Artisans and engineers only had the minimal tooling they were able to bring, if any, and the equipment that would normally be present in a deployed environment to complete the repairs. This can be especially challenging as they don't always know what needs repairing until they arrive, according to Field Team Shop Supervisor Clifton Force, who oversees the depot's FDCR Team.
"Oftentimes, these guys don't know what they are going to be dealing with until they get there," said Force. "They have to be adaptable and extremely resourceful because their FDCR kit may be the only source of tooling they have to fix complex damages. They have to look at what they have, look at what's broken and figure out a way to make it work to get the aircraft back in the air."
Building onto the foundation of last year's iteration, this year's team was larger, allowing them to tackle more repairs and test new, advanced repair technologies, said Mcdonnell.
"Not only are we getting more people trained, but we are doing more repairs on more aircraft," Mcdonnell said. "Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 14 and 26 sent out aircraft maintainers from their intermediate-level maintenance facilities to support the exercise. We also incorporated fiber optic repairs to evaluate possible tooling and prototypes the team can use to repair fiber optic cables in the field. All three of these built onto our overall capability, allowing us to be more prepared for when we need it."
By putting their skills to the test in a high-pressure, simulated combat environment, the participants walked away with far more than just practice - they left with a proven capability to sustain the fleet anywhere in the world, Force said.
"At the end of the day, our goal here was to increase readiness and we did exactly that," Force said. "Not only are the artisans, engineers and planners from FRC East more prepared to support the warfighter, but so are the Reservists and Marines."
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Original text here: https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/FRCE-partners-Reservists-Marines-joint-readiness-training/Mon-06292026-0810
EPA to Waive Water Infrastructure Loan Program Fees, Remove Barriers for Small Communities
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release on June 29, 2026:
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EPA to Waive Water Infrastructure Loan Program Fees, Remove Barriers for Small Communities
Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will be waiving fees for small communities who apply for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. By waiving the WIFIA Application and Credit Processing Fees, small communities can save almost $200,000 when applying for a WIFIA loan, clearing a notable barrier to accessing funding
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release on June 29, 2026:
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EPA to Waive Water Infrastructure Loan Program Fees, Remove Barriers for Small Communities
Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will be waiving fees for small communities who apply for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. By waiving the WIFIA Application and Credit Processing Fees, small communities can save almost $200,000 when applying for a WIFIA loan, clearing a notable barrier to accessing fundingto improve water infrastructure through this successful program.
"Small and rural communities are the backbone of America, and it is a top priority at the Trump EPA to support access to clean, safe drinking water and wastewater services. Water infrastructure in these communities is essential to their public health, environmental protection and economic prosperity," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer. "EPA's WIFIA program has $11 billion in flexible financing available to support water infrastructure projects. Our goal is to reduce barriers to access these resources, especially in our nation's small and rural communities."
The WIFIA program charges fees to loan applicants to reimburse the federal government for costs incurred with processing and underwriting WIFIA loans. These costs can be financed by the WIFIA loan as eligible project costs. The $25,000 WIFIA Application Fee for small communities and separate Credit Processing Fee - currently averaging approximately $156,000 per loan - can be significant barriers for small communities seeking to access WIFIA financing. EPA will be waiving the Application Fee for small communities with populations of 25,000 or fewer. The agency will also waive the Credit Processing Fee for communities in Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027, subject to WIFIA's program requirements and available administrative funds.
The WIFIA program currently has approximately $11 billion in flexible financing available to support water infrastructure projects across the country, including in small and rural communities where WIFIA can finance up to 80 percent of project costs. EPA is currently accepting letters of interest.
Learn more about EPA's WIFIA Program and water infrastructure investments, including how to submit a letter of interest.
Background
Established by the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014, the WIFIA program is a federal loan program administered by EPA. The WIFIA program aims to accelerate investment in the nation's water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost supplemental credit assistance for regionally and nationally significant projects. The WIFIA program has an active pipeline of pending applications for projects that will result in billions of dollars in water infrastructure investment and thousands of jobs.
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Original text here: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-waive-water-infrastructure-loan-program-fees-remove-barriers-small-communities
DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Meet EcoBOT - Autonomous Lab Standardizing Plant-Microbe Research
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory issued the following news:
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Meet EcoBOT: The Autonomous Lab Standardizing Plant-Microbe Research
Berkeley Lab's new "self-driving" laboratory, EcoBOT, automates complex plant experiments to eliminate human error, solve biology's replication crisis, and accelerate bioenergy research.
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To harness biological systems (plants and microbes) for next-generation energy production and advanced materials, researchers are looking to beneficial plant-microbe interactions. Because these are complex systems,
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory issued the following news:
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Meet EcoBOT: The Autonomous Lab Standardizing Plant-Microbe Research
Berkeley Lab's new "self-driving" laboratory, EcoBOT, automates complex plant experiments to eliminate human error, solve biology's replication crisis, and accelerate bioenergy research.
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To harness biological systems (plants and microbes) for next-generation energy production and advanced materials, researchers are looking to beneficial plant-microbe interactions. Because these are complex systems,it has proven difficult to reproducibly control exactly which microbes are present. And, subtle differences in materials, methods, or even the hands of the researchers themselves can lead to inconsistent results. This makes it difficult to replicate previous work, significantly slowing the leap from scientific discovery to practical application.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are overcoming this bottleneck by addressing a multi-layered challenge: building reliable physical hardware, engineering accurate visual sensors, and developing predictive algorithms. Their solution, EcoBOT, stands out from typical plant phenotyping facilities by integrating these distinct components into a reliably automated workflow under strictly sterile conditions.
EcoBOT takes specialized growth chambers, called EcoFABs, and integrates them with machine-learning tools that autonomously guide the discovery cycle. This system uses advanced imaging to regularly scan the entire plant--from the tips of its leaves to the bottom of its roots. By using Gaussian Process models and AI analysis tools, it can quickly analyze and model this visual data to calculate the most informative next steps. This directs the automated hardware to determine exactly how plants adapt to environmental stressors, establishing the crucial microbe-free baseline needed to eventually study plant-microbe interactions and engineer better bioenergy crops.
"Even with a simple biological system, the number of potential variables in an experiment can be overwhelming. If two different researchers tweak even a minor parameter, they could get completely different results," said Peter Andeer, a researcher in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology (EGSB) Division who contributed to the design of EcoFABs and EcoBOT. "EcoBOT gives us speed, but more importantly, visibility. Without a system to keep track of the big picture, you just end up with disconnected observations, and no one can make sense of it."
EcoBOT's algorithmic engines
To illustrate how EcoBOT couples continuous measurement, adaptive modeling, and experimental redesign, the Berkeley Lab researchers used the system to observe how the model grass Brachypodium distachyon responds to environmental stressors such as nutrient deprivation and copper toxicity. In a traditional workflow, researchers might test a random spread of copper concentrations and wait weeks to measure the results. But inside EcoBOT's compact cabinet, a robotic arm can autonomously manage over 150 individual EcoFABs simultaneously across three shelves. This robotic hardware doesn't just automate the process; it intentionally maintains a highly controlled physical environment, providing the necessary foundation for the system-level modeling and downstream adaptive decision-making.
Historically, extracting continuous data from that many biological environments would have been a grueling, manual task prone to human error. To solve this, researchers equipped EcoBOT with a suite of Berkeley Lab-developed deep learning tools that serve as the system's digital eyes. Addressing this sensing challenge required developing sophisticated new computer vision algorithms capable of reliably translating complex, noisy biological imagery into precise measurements.
Below ground, a tool called RhizoNet serves as an automated root tracker. Rather than relying on inconsistent manual interpretation of root images, RhizoNet uses neural-network-based segmentation to digitally separate fragile plant roots from the noisy background of the hydroponic fluid in a standardized and reproducible way. In validation tests, it successfully standardized the analysis of thousands of images, precisely tracking root growth dynamics across all the different copper treatments. Above ground, a computer vision tool called EcoSpec scans the plant's shoots and analyzes complex, multi-wavelength hyperspectral images to monitor plant health. This tool has demonstrated high accuracy in high-throughput monitoring--while maintaining consistency across longitudinal measurements.
The EcoBOT becomes a true self-driving laboratory through the continuous interaction between its physical infrastructure, sensing systems, and adaptive modeling framework. The robotic hardware stabilizes the experimental environment, the imaging systems convert plant behavior into quantitative measurements, and gpCAM uses those measurements to identify where uncertainty is highest and determine which experiments should be performed next. Using Gaussian-process-based modeling, gpCAM analyzes preliminary experimental results, estimates uncertainty across the experimental landscape, and calculates the next copper concentrations that are likely to be most informative. By iteratively targeting these knowledge gaps, this autonomous approach improved the predictive accuracy of the plant biomass models by more than thirty percent. Training and processing the complex visual data for these advanced machine learning models requires massive computational power, which the team accesses using supercomputers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
"This level of automation now positions us to go after our long-term goal of using it to help elucidate beneficial plant-microbe interactions," said Andeer. "I was actually collecting data while on the other side of the country, just by logging in and hitting 'go.' We no longer have to arrange for a team of research assistants to take individual measurements and hope they are recorded consistently. EcoBOT feeds those measurements directly into our models. And because it all happens inside the sterile EcoFAB environment, we can guarantee there are no outside microbes influencing the results, which is impossible in a greenhouse."
Andeer notes that Berkeley Lab's culture of team science was essential to realizing this vision. Bringing the self-driving lab to life required a collaboration of plant biologists, robotics engineers, and mathematicians from the Lab's CAMERA team.
"We originally built gpCAM as open-source software because researchers at massive experimental facilities were simply drowning in data," said Marcus Noack, a researcher in the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research (AMCR) Division and CAMERA, as well as the developer of gpCAM. "When you are exploring a vast, uncharted experimental landscape, measuring everything is impossible. Instead, gpCAM allows the instrument to calculate its own uncertainty and pinpoint the exact data points needed to complete the map. Whether you are scanning a 2D material or testing copper toxicity in an EcoFAB, the AI actively steers the experiment so we can learn as much as possible, as efficiently as possible."
Reliable hardware and reproducible results
The success of EcoBOT's AI is actually built on years of work by the Department of Energy-funded TEAMS project to help address the reproducibility crisis--the frustrating reality that an experiment in one laboratory often yields conflicting results when attempted in another, simply due to invisible environmental shifts or human handling.
By using standardized EcoFABs, researchers in the EGSB Division and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) led the team that successfully demonstrated the ability to replicate plant-microbiome studies in five independent laboratories across three continents. The collaborators were tasked with running the exact same synthetic microbiome experiment. Using the EcoFABs, all five observed identical changes in plant growth, root chemistry, and bacterial community structure. They consistently replicated how a specific bacterium, Paraburkholderia, shifted the microbiome--proving that when the environment is perfectly controlled, complex biology can be reliably reproduced anywhere in the world. EcoFAB 2.0 devices can be accessed at no cost by scientists through the JGI's Community Science Program and the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) call, which are proposal-based initiatives that select projects based on scientific merit and Department of Energy relevance.
"This entire platform is a great example of multi-disciplinary team science," said Trent Northen, EGSB Deputy Division Director, who also serves as principal investigator of the m-CAFEs Science Focus Area, and co-developer of the EcoFAB and EcoBOT systems. "By using robotics and AI to standardize plant-microbe studies, we are building the foundational tools to accelerate science to address pressing DOE Missions and global challenges."
By accurately modeling how plants and microbes interact in these standardized environments, Northen says researchers can learn to harness microbiomes to improve soil health and boost agricultural productivity.
Reflecting the true collaborative nature of this work, in addition to Andeer and Noack, Northen credits the platform's success to critical contributions from a multifunctional team of researchers, including Benjamin Bowen (EGSB), Vlastimil Novak (EGSB), Jamie Sethian (AMCR/CAMERA), Daniela Ushizima (AMCR/CAMERA), John Vogel (JGI), and Petrus Zwart (Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division/CAMERA), as well as current JGI Lab Automation Staff members LT Cornmesser and Joseph Zorzi.
The development of EcoBOT was supported by several Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research (DOE-BER) program projects over the years. It was originally developed by the TEAMS initiative, and is now supported by m-CAFEs, the JGI, and TWINS. JGI and NERSC are DOE Office of Science User Facilities.
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab's expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab's world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
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Original text here: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2026/06/29/meet-ecobot-the-autonomous-lab-standardizing-plant-microbe-research/
Brazil's Goias State to Enhance Fiscal Sustainability With IDB Support
WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following news release:
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Brazil's Goias State to Enhance Fiscal Sustainability with IDB Support
The Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $90.4 million loan for the state of Goias in Brazil to strengthen fiscal revenue and public expenditure management.
This operation will finance measures to strengthen fiscal governance, upgrade technology, and operational processes, and build institutional capacity. The measures will modernize Goias's fiscal management, contributing to
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WASHINGTON, June 30 -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following news release:
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Brazil's Goias State to Enhance Fiscal Sustainability with IDB Support
The Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a $90.4 million loan for the state of Goias in Brazil to strengthen fiscal revenue and public expenditure management.
This operation will finance measures to strengthen fiscal governance, upgrade technology, and operational processes, and build institutional capacity. The measures will modernize Goias's fiscal management, contributing toaligning systems and processes with the country's consumption tax reform as well as enhance the state's ability to deliver services and support sustainable economic and social development.
Goias will strengthen its public governance model, improve personnel management, modernize IT, and streamline procurement while boosting citizen engagement and accountability. The state will also overhaul tax, budget, and legal frameworks to improve revenue collection and expenditure and legal management of fiscal risks and liabilities.
This new operation is part of the third phase of the PROFISCO Program, a national IDB-supported initiative to strengthen fiscal sustainability at the subnational level in Brazil. These efforts will facilitate tax compliance in Goias and enable higher-quality public spending and support better public services for the population.
The loan has a 24-year maturity, a six-year grace period, and an interest rate based on SOFR. Counterpart financing totals $10.1 million.
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About the IDB
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a member of the IDB Group, is devoted to improving lives across Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1959, the Bank works with the region's public sector to design and enable impactful, innovative solutions for sustainable and inclusive development. Leveraging financing, technical expertise, and knowledge, it promotes growth and well-being in 26 countries.
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Original text here: https://www.iadb.org/en/news/brazils-goias-state-enhance-fiscal-sustainability-idb-support
