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Sustainable Biomass Conversion

GLBRC scientist John Ralph awarded top forestry prize for lignin research

Ralph and his collaborators were honored for developing and innovatively applying advanced analytical techniques in ways that enhance understanding of lignin biosynthesis and structure in trees and provide a basis for new ways to deconstruct wood and use lignin.

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| Mark Griffin
Daniel Amador-Noguez is learning how living organisms transform nutrients into energy and other useful chemicals. Among a cadre of scientists looking at the biological underpinnings of metabolism, Amador-Noguez knows firsthand the links between the fuel that makes our bodies go and the biofuels that propel our machines. Because he studies both.
| Mark E. Griffin

Switchgrass is attractive as a potential bioenergy crop because it can grow for years without having to be replanted. Requiring less fertilizer than typical annual crops like corn, switchgrass can keep more nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon in the soil and out of our air and waterways. But, unlike corn, breeding of switchgrass for optimal traits is still in its early stages.

| Michigan State University
At the conclusion of a pilot study for Michigan State University’s Plant Resilience Institute (PRI), microbial ecologist Ashley Shade had a hunch that started a chain reaction of exciting interdisciplinary and international collaboration and landed Shade and her team a three-year, $750,000 USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant to investigate the seed microbiome of the common bean.
| Jill Sakai

The April 2019 issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology features a series of papers focused on plant biotechnology and lignin bioengineering, including several familiar faces at Great Lakes Bioenergy.

| Jill Sakai

Developing renewable, plant-based alternatives for petroleum-derived chemicals is a major piece of the effort to transition away from a fossil-fuel based economy toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly bio-based economy.

| Sam Million-Weaver

Petrochemicals, the oil- and gas-derived compounds that serve as the molecular backbones for much of modern commerce, commanded a $539.3 billion market value in 2018.

Replacing just a few of those petroleum products with chemicals made from plants or microbes could put a substantial dent in the world’s fossil fuel consumption.

Farmers can’t predict their annual corn harvest with certainty, but with the help of new research from Michigan State University, they can now pinpoint specific parts of their fields that consistently produce either good or bad yields. Not only will this save them time and money; it will solve one of the most widespread environmental problems facing crop-producing regions – nitrogen loss.

| Jill Sakai

Microbial production of fuels and other useful chemicals offers renewable alternatives to products that are currently derived from fossil fuels.

| Layne Cameron

You might think that mowing fields wouldn’t benefit monarch butterfly populations. New research from Michigan State University, however, shows that disturbances like mowing ­– at key times – might help boost the iconic butterfly’s numbers.

| Katie Gerhards

Jason Peters is one of thousands of scientists worldwide aiming to curb the impact of antimicrobial resistance, which is one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 10 threats to global health in 2019.

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