ISU, Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation partner to improve metabolomics of making plant oils

In Iowa, an Iowa State University research team is collaborating with scientists at the Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation and also with scientists in Japan to develop an international partnership to help make strides in the technologies needed towards a low-carbon society.

The research will look at the chemistry of basic processes in plants and how those functions can be better known and used. One of the targets of the research is to allow scientists to alter plants so they produce more or better oils, or lipids. These molecules are more efficient in storing energy than starch molecules.

If the metabolomics of making oil can be better understood, it could be more efficiently altered and plants can be used to make more valuable oil.

This could then lead to more efficient biofuels and better, more cost-effective biochemicals, which have higher value than biofuels. In addition, this program will allow great opportunities for young Iowa scientists to gain international exposure in their education and training, which will broaden the individual’s capacity to conceive and conduct competitive research.