In Search of New Biofuels: UD Wins $2.2 Million Grant for Bioenergy Research
(University of Delaware) …Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis, Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, is working to create hardy organisms for producing biofuels and chemicals from renewable sources – microorganisms that are more resistant to toxic chemicals and engineered to withstand the stress response that can inhibit cell growth and cause cell death.
The three-year project is funded through a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The research is considered important to the DOE’s mission on energy and the environment, particularly in developing a fundamental way to understand and model complex programs of organisms and biological systems.
Stress response and tolerance of microorganisms to chemicals is complex, involving several parameters such as pH, temperature, osmotic pressure and the presence of other molecules. For applications in biofuel production, it is important to understand the cellular response to various chemicals and other bioprocess conditions.
…The team will use an experimental systems-biology approach to support the development of integrated, predictive models of the metabolic and regulatory networks underlying the metabolite stress response in solventogenic clostridia. READ MORE and MORE (Biorefining Magazine)
