In the UK, Business Secretary Vince Cable has unveiled the winners of a multi-million-pound competition to bring innovative UK biotechnology projects to market. A total of 23 projects, ranging from making biofuel from household waste to using bacteria to make the building blocks for new medicines, will share almost GBP20 million from the BBSRC-supported Industrial […]
In Massachusetts, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a way to produce isopropanol from solar energy using bacteria as a “bionic leaf”. The technology is based on inexpensive catalysts and materials that are readily accessible.
Solomon Barry D., and Robert Baillis eds. Sustainable Development of Biofuels in Latin America and the Caribbean. New York: Springer Press, 2014 By Thomas N. Thompson., Maritime Environmental and Energy Advisor, U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), Washington ([email protected]). Amongst all the renewable resources, biomass is one of the most promising, particularly for transportation fuels. This superb […]
In Missouri, Akermin announced the issuance of 3 new patents, each contributing to the expansion of the company’s intellectual property position in industrial biocatalysis. The United States patent office recently issued Akermin the following patents: US 8895280 Polysilicate-Polysilicone Enzyme Immobilization Materials and US 8859151 Immobilized Enzymes in Biocathodes. The patent office also issued a Notice […]
In India, researchers at Kochi-based SCMS Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research and Development and the SCMS School of Engineering and Technology have filed for a US patent for coconut-based biodiesel. The technology can produce 760 liters of biodiesel from 10,000 coconuts’ worth of oil, along with five other co-products.
In Israel, Evogene announced it has signed a Letter of Intent with plans to establish a research and development facility in the Bio-Research and Development Growth (BRDG) Park, developed by Wexford Science & Technology, a BioMed Realty Company, on the campus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The establishment of […]
In Colorado, researchers led by Agricultural Research Service recently found a new way to exploit sorghum’s potential. They found that by using certain cropping strategies, growers can produce sorghum in parts of northeastern Colorado where the growing season was previously considered too short. Meanwhile, another team of ARS scientists working in Texas has developed a […]
In Israel, the Ministry of Science, Technology & Space and KerenHayesod-UIA, together with the Prime Minister’s Office, has announced a new annual award, “The Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation.” Accompanying the award will be a prize of USD $1 million.The prize will be awarded for global […]
In Louisiana, researchers at the LSU AgCenter are pleased with the results from energy cane varieties under trial, saying that many of the 300 they are testing survived the unusually cold winter of 2013 without impacting yields. Extending cane’s resistance to cold is key to growing the crop outside the traditional cane-growing belt.
In Israel, Evogen announced that its recently developed comprehensive gene optimization program is being incorporated into its multi-year collaboration with Monsanto Company. The addition of these new capabilities, which have been designed to optimize desired trait efficacy and potentially accelerate product development, follows the successful identification and validation by Evogene of more than one thousand […]
