Jack Newman, chief science officer at Amyris, Inc. answers GLBRC's questions about his recent Presidential Green Chemistry Award, the future of biofuels, and his thoughts on ethical bioengineering.
Jack Newman received his Ph.D. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2001 under the direction of Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) director Tim Donohue. Newman currently serves as the chief science officer at Amyris, Inc., a renewable fuels and chemicals company he co-founded in 2003 with his post-doctoral advisor at University of California–Berkeley and three other researchers. In October 2014, Amyris received a Green Chemistry Innovation Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its development of farnesane, an advanced renewable fuel already in use by major airlines and the U.S. Navy.
GLBRC: Can you tell us about Amyris and your work there?
JN: Amyris makes all sorts of products from renewable biomass like sugarcane. The Presidential Green Chemistry Award was for the jet and diesel fuels, both of which are blockbuster fuels based on sugarcane-derived farnesane, with high energy content, low carbon footprint, and clean-burning quality. We also make the best emollient skin treatment in the world, squalane, which has historically been sourced by hunting sharks but which we make from sugarcane.
We started the company with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make a cure for malaria. This non-profit project provided the technology for 120 million cures last year. Since I founded the company ten years ago with my advisor and three post-doctoral researchers, I have done everything from run the laboratory to negotiate our lease. Today Amyris is a public company and I devote my time as chief science officer to innovation in the field of synthetic biology.
GLBRC: What do you see as the most important next steps for moving towards a transport sector that uses predominantly biofuels?
JN: Three things move us inevitably to the universal use of biofuels: first, the finite volume of petroleum in the world, which ultimately will be gone, leaving us no choice but to find an alternative like a biofuel. Second, the increasingly efficient production of biomass feedstock from agriculture. This feedstock ultimately determines the cost to produce biofuel and its price. Third, our increasing awareness of the potential for cataclysmic climate change from greenhouse gasses and our motivation to take control of that future through policy. Perhaps the next step will be to accelerate this inevitable switch by placing some value on low-carbon, clean fuels. Or perhaps it will be through more efficient biomass production. Either answer is fine and, ultimately, all three will come to pass.
GLBRC: What is the relationship between advances made by centers like the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and your continuing development of farnesane or other products from plant biomass?
JN: As I mentioned, the cost of biofuels is all about the cost of biomass feedstock. We produce farnesane in Brazil because, as a result of Brazil’s large sugarcane-based ethanol industry, they are able to produce the lowest-cost feedstock in the world today. The work of the GLBRC and centers like it is pivotal to reducing the cost of biomass as feedstocks for biofuels. Great progress has already been made and I expect more to come.
GLBRC: Do you have advice for students considering a career in science?
JN: The simple advice is to do what you love and don’t take “No” for an answer. If you love basic research, do it. If you don’t love it, do something else. The sooner, the better. If you are like me and you want to apply your work to a problem, think outside the university setting. Think about what value your research can bring to the world. The intersection between what the world needs and what your work can bring is a wonderful place to make a career.
GLBRC: As a board member of Biobricks - whose mission is to ensure ethical bioengineering that will benefit all people and the planet - do you have thoughts on the ethics of genetic engineering and how that fits into biofuels research and production?
JN: I got into biology as a teenager with the simple thought that bio-based products are inherently more environmentally-friendly than petroleum-based products. Genetics, breeding, and genetic engineering are some of the tools we have for producing bio-based products, new materials, and fuels for a better world for everyone. I plan to see a world where nations can prosper without a devastating footprint on the globe and where malaria is a thing of the past. If we focus only on the issues of the developed world, without accounting for how a new middle class in Africa and Asia will reach our standard of living without destroying the planet, we will not have used our technology ethically. From my experience with the science community, I am very, very optimistic that scientists can use bioengineering in safe and responsible ways that will benefit humanity as well as the planet.
GLBRC: Who has inspired you in your career and how?
JN: Tim Donohue (my doctoral advisor at UW-Madison), Jay Keasling (my post-doctoral advisor at UC-Berkeley and Amyris co-founder), Brian O’ Brian (my professor at Santa Rosa Junior College), John Melo (Amyris CEO) and Barack Obama. What do they have in common? Unyielding positive energy and a burning desire to find a way to say, “yes we can.”