A Web of Biological Data Act to make biological data reachable from one place — with a national laboratory selected as the core

1Scattered, and so unusable

Biological data is produced in enormous volume, but it collects in places separated by field and by institution. Gene sequences, protein structures, clinical records, environmental observations — each has its own specialized database, differing in format and in how it is reached. Assembling data from several places to answer one question becomes a burden separate from the research itself. This bill asks the government to take on that consolidation.

2A national laboratory at the core

1. 1SelectionThe Secretary of Energy selects the national laboratory that will serve as the core
2. 2OperationThe director of that selected laboratory runs the resource
3. 3AdviceAn advisory board is separately established
4. 4PurposeFacilitating biological research by enabling advanced computational methods such as artificial intelligence

Rather than creating a new organization, the design selects a core from among the national laboratories that already exist. The Department of Energy laboratories already hold large computing resources and the organization to run them, which makes them a realistic base for handling biological data at volume.

Establishing a separate advisory board reads as recognizing that the fields using the resource are broad and the operating laboratory perspective alone would skew it.

3The word web

Web of biological data conveys connecting what is scattered rather than building one enormous database. Existing databases are not replaced; access to them is consolidated. Another bill this site covers has NIST establish definitions and standards making biological datasets ready for AI, so the same problem is being worked from the standards side and the connection side at once.

4Four sponsors together

The sponsors are Mr. Young, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Kim and Mr. Rounds, spanning parties. Building research infrastructure repeatedly draws bipartisan introductions across these bills. Of the 120 bills this site holds as of 2026-09-02, 94 (78 percent) remain referred to committee, and this bill sits with the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.