Skip to main content

Todd Edwards
Senior Automation Engineer

Todd Edwards is a senior automation engineer with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s automation team. His job involves working with team scientists and engineers as well as outside vendors to automate labor-intensive processes currently being done by hand with the goal of meeting increasing throughput demands.  

Edwards holds a PhD in bioengineering and is a former biophysics professor. After leaving academics, he spent over 20 years working with many aspects of laboratory automation on both the user and vendor sides of the industry. He then got into leadership and recently 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.