NREL launches synthetic biology project to advance biofuels

In Washington D.C, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), together with LanzaTech NZ, Northwestern University, and Yale University has launches a synthetic biology project to advance biofuel discovery technologies. “Our team at NREL is thrilled to be able to leverage our expertise in bacterial strain development and machine learning toward decarbonized production of fuels and chemicals with leaders in the areas of systems biology, genome engineering, cell-free conversion, and gas fermentation,” said Chris Johnson, NREL’s senior scientist who will co-lead the project. Northwestern, Yale, LanzaTech, and NREL are joining forces to create carbon-consuming bacteria capable of producing viable industrial-scale biofuels. Rather than relying on time-consuming trial-and-error methods to manipulate a bacterium’s genome, the team will use a predictive design approach that encompasses genome engineering and machine learning tools, NREL said. The team will apply these tools to three biological test beds: anaerobic, aerobic, and cell-free systems. Each of these complementary systems is capable of converting carbon dioxide into the types of useful fuel and chemical intermediates that are currently made by petrochemical resources.

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