Lignin is a key obstacle to extracting sugars from biomass. Researchers have redesigned lignin to include weak bonds, or “zips,” which make it much easier to break apart. Credit: Shawn Mansfield, UBC

Great Lakes Bioenergy

Great Lakes Bioenergy is a U.S. Department of Energy-funded research center dedicated to developing sustainable biofuels and bioproducts.

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Who We Are

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) is a U.S. Department of Energy-funded Bioenergy Research Center led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. With Michigan State University and other partners, we are developing sustainable biofuels and bioproducts made from dedicated energy crops grown on marginal lands. Our mission is simple: creating biofuels and bioproducts that are economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

Research Themes

Sustainable cropping systems

Engineering bioenergy crops to enhance their environmental and economic value

Generating multiple products from plant biomass

Understanding and optimizing the field-to-product pipeline

System approach innovations improve understanding of plant resilience

A researcher in a white lab coat examines a sorghum plant stalk in a greenhouse, photographed through surrounding foliage with climate control equipment visible in the background.

Since joining GLBRC in 2022, Dae Kwan Ko has helped develop computational frameworks and data sets that support other GLBRC scientists in the quest for genes that contribute to more resilient and bountiful bioenergy crops.

GLBRC alumni profile: Caro Córdova

Three researchers examine a small sample or label among tall grasses in an outdoor field setting, photographed from ground level with grass blades in the foreground under a cloudy sky.

Carolina (Caro) Córdova is an assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a statewide soil health specialist with UNL Extension. With a PhD in soil science from Iowa State University, Córdova was a postdoctoral researcher and field research coordinator with GLBRC from 2018 to 2022.