A research team led by Iowa State University’s Laura Jarboe will try to fix that problem by identifying rougher, tougher enzymes and engineering microbes to use them in industrial fermentation. Their work is supported by a three-year, $969,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“We want to make these microbes more robust,” said Jarboe, Iowa State’s Cargill Professor of Chemical Engineering. “To do that, we need to think about the problem for the microbes. We can’t just say, ‘Do better.’”
In this case, enzymes that require cooling or pH (acidity/alkalinity) adjustments to remain active are costly problems. Some of these enzymes are vital to the microbes’ ability to convert bio-based substrates into products, and some are vital for organism survival.
Are there hardier, tougher, more robust enzymes out there? Could industrial microbes be engineered to be more like “extremophiles” and remain active under the harsh conditions in the fermentors?
Teaming up to find answers are Jarboe; Robert Jernigan, an Iowa State Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology; and Peter St. John, a senior scientist in the Biosciences Center at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.
Millions to study microbes
The energy department’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research awarded 34 biotechnology grants totaling $45.5 million this summer, including this grant supporting the work of Jarboe, Jernigan and St. John. Winners were selected after a competitive, peer-review process.
“Biofuels that can power planes and ships, and bioproducts made from renewable resources will play a critical role in decarbonizing our economy,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, in a statement announcing the grants.
