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A young poplar plant growing in a greenhouse
Sustainable cropping systems

Engineered poplar lignin has more of valuable “clip-off” chemical

Scientists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center engineered a new type of poplar with more of a valuable platform chemical and less lignin overall, resulting in wood that is easier to deconstruct and more valuable.

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| Mark E. Griffin

A new process developed by scientists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center enables greater production of squalene, a terpene with an array of uses in the biotechnology industry and as an energy-dense biofuel. Researchers increased plant production of the chemical by redirecting production to lipid droplets scaffolded to plastids in the cell.

| Staff

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center's outreach team joined groups from across UW–Madison for a Saturday of science exploration at the Kujichagulia Center for Self-Determination's Juneteenth celebration on June 18 at Penn Park in Madison. Attendees were invited to explore science at nearly a dozen UW Science Alliance hands-on educational stations, chat with scientists, and more.

| Michelle Chung, Mary Riker, and Mark E. Griffin

What does it mean to foster an environment that truly feels welcoming? For Yiying Xiong, associate director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, it all comes down to treating a team of coworkers like they are part of a family. Xiong spoke with us about her experiences nurturing these families in the hydropower industry and now academic research.

| Michelle Chung
In a new modeling study, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) scientists found that an integrated approach combining bioenergy and advanced management of crop, forest and grazing lands can provide climate benefits far greater than either approach alone.
| Emilie Lorditch

An integrated approach to land management practices in the U.S. can reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere far more than earlier estimates based on separate approaches, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) researchers say. Their research was published May 31 in the journal Global Change Biology.

| Mark E. Griffin

“We know more about Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer’s yeast, than just about any other organism,” says Francesca Gambacorta, a graduate student in Brian Pfleger’s lab at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. 

| Jill Sakai
A new study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center describes a complete lignin-to-bioproduct pipeline that could produce high yields of a target chemical with high potential value as a platform chemical to make adhesives, plastics, and other biopolymers.
| Molly A. Seltzer

Biomass can be used to sustainably produce common chemicals instead of oil, but it is unclear which chemicals are most crucial to replace. Now, a Princeton researcher has created a way to rank the chemicals based on the carbon emissions of their production processes.

| Jill Sakai
An analysis of the environmental impacts of producing corn ethanol reveals that carbon emissions from using land to grow corn can offset or even negate the potential climate advantages of corn ethanol relative to gasoline. The results add urgency to the work at GLBRC and other bioenergy research centers to develop next-generation biofuels from perennial, non-food crops, grown on land less suited for conventional agriculture.
| Mary Riker
This week we spoke with Amy Enright, a graduate student in Jason Peters' lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to talk about why she came to UW-Madison, her research on the microbe Zymomonas mobilis, and her advice for interested graduate students.

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