Midwest Biomass Detectives on the Case

Public News Service - WIJune 2010
June 16, 2010

MADISON, Wis. - Researchers have taken a major step forward in cracking the genetic secrets that would make it easier and cheaper to convert tons of Midwest biomass into energy. A team at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has found a way to identify specific genetic factors that could lead to less expensive biofuel production.

Scientist David Keating of the University of Wisconsin led the team that has figured out a way to "turn off" certain genetic switches, one at a time, to determine a way to produce a bacterium that can turn crop waste into fuel.

"If we disrupt that gene and now the organism can't degrade this material, we know that gene is really important and that's a gene we want to study further."

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