Items in Category “News”

Aymerick Eudes and Dominique Loque of the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI) led a study that shows for the first time that an enzyme can be tweaked to reduce lignin in plants. Their technique could help lower the cost of converting biomass into carbon-neutral fuels to power your car and other sustainably developed bio-products.

New Biosynthesis Pathways for Five-Carbon Alcohol from Mevalonate Are Available For Licensing

JBEI’s Post-Doctoral Researcher Sarah Richardson teamed up with Team Escamilla at Tumble to record a science podcast for kids ages 8 - 12, created to be enjoyed by the entire family. In this podcast episode Richardson explains how she's trying to convince bacteria to make the things we need, such as biofuels.

Using renewable materials to produce biofuels is an overarching goal of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Plants represent this renewable source since they can be broken down to sugars such as glucose and xylose that microbes can convert to a desired final product.

Jay Keasling, Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences, and JBEI's Chief Executive Officer, announced that Blake Simmons has accepted the position of Division Director for Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) effective February 10, 2016. He will retain his positions as Chief Scientific and Technology Officer and as the Vice President of the Deconstruction Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute.

JBEI's Seema Singh and Blake Simmons led the development of a “high-gravity” one-pot process for producing ethanol from cellulosic biomass that gives unprecedented yields while minimizing water use and waste disposal. “High gravity” means high biomass loading - the higher the biomass loading, the lower the costs for converting it to fuels.

JBEI and GLBRC are are finding ways to convert lignin from an undesirable byproduct into a starting material for advanced biofuels and other lucrative chemicals.