Joshua Heazlewood Talks With ScienceWatch.com
Feedstocks Director of Systems Biology answers a few questions about this month's Fast Moving Front in the field of Plant & Animal Science.
Researchers Given Award to Study DNA Sequences In Order to Make Biofuels
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico, the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Novozymes, and North Carolina State University’s Center for Integrated Fungal Research (NCSU-CIFR) have received a DNA sequencing award from the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) to study microbial genes in arid grasslands. The research combines interests in fundamental microbial ecology with DOE goals to exploit microbes in the production of biofuels.
A Life of Its Own: Where Will Synthetic Biology Lead Us?
Keasling and a rapidly growing number of colleagues around the world have something more radical in mind. By using gene-sequence information and synthetic DNA, they are attempting to reconfigure the metabolic pathways of cells to perform entirely new functions, such as manufacturing chemicals and drugs.
Taking Biofuels From the Lab to the Classroom
Kate Trimlett is bringing biofuels into Berkeley High School’s science curriculum.
Armed with eight weeks of biofuels research experience from the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville, the Berkeley High science teacher is ready to take this controversial topic from the lab to the classroom.
Fuels from Biomass: New Technique Can Fast-Track Better Ionic Liquids for Biomass Pre-Treatments
They’ve been dubbed “grassoline” - second generation biofuels made from inedible plant material, including fast-growing weeds, agricultural waste, sawdust, etc. - and numerous scientific studies have shown them to be prime candidates for replacing gasoline to meet our transportation needs. However, before we can begin to roll down the highways on sustainable, carbon-neutral grassoline, numerous barriers must be overcome, starting with finding ways to break lignocellulosic biomass down into fermentable sugars.
Keasling Gives Keynote Speech at Green Partnership Meeting
JBEI CEO Jay Keasling was the keynote speaker at the East Bay Green Corridor Pasrtnership's second annual meeting. The partnership was founded in December 2007 by the mayors of Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond, the chancellor of UC Berkeley and the then-director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Steven Chu, now Obama’s Secretary of Energy) on the premise that collaborating across city limits and institutional boundaries in the name of green economic development would benefit the region.
Keasling Wins BIO’s First Biotech Humanitarian Award
JBEI CEO Jay Keasling has been selected by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) to receive its first annual Biotech Humanitarian Award. Keasling was recognized for his use of synthetic biology techniques to develop a simple and much less expensive means of making artemisinin, today’s most powerful anti-malaria drug.
JBEI Open House
On 5 May 2009 JBEI held its first Open House. This invitation-only event was attended by various representatives from private industry and academic institutions. The Open House gave guests the opportunity to tour the facility, network with researchers, and to learn how their organizations could get involved via the JBEI Industrial Partnership Program.
Local Scientist Revolutionizes Cell Research
Much of the research underway in finding an alternative to gasoline is being conducted in the Bay Area. Behind one of the largest projects in an East Bay scientist who is trying to make a difference in the world.
Biofuel Research Expand Possibilities
The search for biologically derived transportation fuels has exploded into a technological drag race among Bay Area researchers - one that could morph into business profits for corporations, entrepreneurs and investors as the next generation of biofuels begins to replace or augment crude oil and gasoline.
Ethanol Lobbyists Storm Sacramento
Ethanol investors met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week in an effort to derail California’s far-reaching proposal to slash carbon emissions from transportation fuels.
Students Test Clean Energy By Degrees
Moving clean energy innovations from the lab to the marketplace is one of the biggest challenges in the technology industry. But students at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business are getting a crash course on how to achieve it.
