This image of a bacterial cell shows lipid droplets on the exterior of the cell wall. The lipids have escaped through a cell envelope that has been modified by UW–Madison and GLBRC researchers to increase lipid production. Photo courtesy of the Donohue Lab

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

GLBRC honors researchers for mentorship

A woman and a man in white lab coats look at petri dishes in a laboratory

In addition to carrying out basic science, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center serves as a training ground for the next generation of scientists, with more than 1,500 trainees who have gone on to work in academia, government, and industry roles.

Research highlight: Poisonous plants hold keys to potent medicines

Molecular Plant journal cover featuring a stylized illustration of Aconitum and Delphinium flowering plants flanking an origami-style diterpenoid alkaloid molecule and a petri dish with crystals, rendered in a stained-glass aesthetic against a dark background.

Diterpenoid alkaloids have a wide range of uses, from natural pesticides to treatments for cancer, malaria, inflammation, pain, and nausea. But their complex structures make them extremely difficult to create in the lab, meaning natural production, or biosynthesis, is the most promising alternative. These findings mark the first established pathway for a diterpenoid alkaloid, enabling biosynthetic production and serving as a basis for discoveries that could lead to production of more complex products.