Working under BER’s Secure Biosystems Design Program, NREL’s two projects will provide the fundamental research to meet that need, investigating the basic machinery of microbes to give engineers a roadmap for designing secure biosystems. Researchers in NREL’s first project are focusing on predicting and controlling the biosecurity risks of bioengineered organisms that may be used in advanced industrial applications. To do this, they will develop a robust platform to help engineers design, generate, and analyze biological containment strategies. Ultimately, the work will result in an extensive library of microbial strains, biocontainment modules, and testing platforms, serving as a guide for creating secure biosystems for an array of agriculture and bioenergy applications.