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These Jacks-of-all-trades are masters, too
In a landmark study based on one of the most comprehensive genomic datasets ever assembled, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vanderbilt University offer a possible answer to one of the oldest questions about evol
In most college classes, students are quizzed with questions and the professors already know the answer. But CS 699, a special topics course in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, turns that teaching method on its head: university scientists turn to students to help crack their toughest research questions.
On September 26, 2012, we hosted #LabChat Q&A: Biofuels of the Future with @ENERGY. The #LabChat features @GLBRC project leader Brian Pfleger, whose research focuses on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. GLBRC Education and Outreach Director John Greenler moderated from @WI_Bioenergy.
Developing technologies to produce biofuels is a little like bargain hunting: the goal is to come up with a valuable product for a competitive price.
Kate Helmich
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center research assistant Kate Helmich explains what an enzyme is.
ow can GLBRC researchers be sure that successful fuel production at the lab bench can be scaled up to meet the needs of a state, a region or a country?
Once biomass has been pretreated and the sugars released, GLBRC scientists work with bugs like yeast and E. coli to optimize the way they churn through sugars and ferment them to produce fuels.
Just as people need to chew food to better access and digest the nutrients inside, mechanical and chemical pretreatment of plants disrupts the cell walls and allows access to the sugars within. Using ammonia, heat and pressure, a pretreatment method known as AFEX (ammonia fiber expansion) blasts open cell walls, allowing enzymes easier access to the sugar polymers that make up plant cellulose.
In August, President Obama announced that the U.S.
Creating biofuels from region-specific biomass could make a huge dent in fossil fuel use for transportation. But moving lightweight, bulky biomass from farms to factories could leave a large carbon footprint, and get expensive quickly.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Pretreating non-edible biomass – corn leaves, stalks or switch grass – holds the keys for unlocking its energy potential and making it economically viable, according to a team of researchers led by Michigan State University.
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