JBEI researchers develop new technique to assess feasibility of biofuel microbes

Ethanol Producer Magazine May 2009
By Erin Voegele
Web exclusive posted April 20, 2009, at 1:00 p.m. CST

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a California-based scientific partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have developed a new technique to complete metabolic studies that could greatly accelerate the search for new biofuel microbes.

To date, this research has focused on the microbe Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius. According to Rajat Sapra, JBEI’s director of enzyme optimization and a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratory, work has focused on this particular microbe for three reasons; it is a bacteria that can grow at high temperatures, it can utilize both C5 and C6 sugars, and it has been shown to have a higher tolerance to ethanol than any other known bacteria.

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