Growing fuel and medicine: Advancing biofuels and plant-produced therapeutics

Biofuels production, specifically, ethanol production in the United States has increased dramatically since the year 2000, ranging from 1 percent of the overall gasoline pool or 1.63 billion gallons in 2000, up to 2.85 percent and 3.9 billion gallons in 2005. Total production potential in 2007 was almost 6.5 billion gallons, leading the world in ethanol output. The United States and Brazil account for over 90 percent of the world's total ethanol production, but is it enough? And are we headed in the right direction? Ethanol from corn, which is the basis of ethanol production in the United States, is a grossly inefficient process as compared to other sources such as sugar cane which is the basis for ethanol production in Brazil. Corn yields only 320 to 420 gallons of ethanol per acre, while sugar cane yields in Brazil range from 720 to 870 gallons per acre. Ethanol from corn, also a food crop, would eventually compete with food markets and cause prices to rise. There is conflicting evidence that this is currently happening. Cellulosic ethanol promises much higher efficiencies than are currently available from plants possessing inherently large concentrations of sugar as this method uses most of the available biomass. Complex carbohydrate structures such as lignin and hemi-cellulose pose a formidable technical barrier to releasing fermentable sugars from plant-derived feedstock. Technologies specifically designed to overcome these barriers are currently in development, from mechanical/chemical techniques designed to destroy the lignin barrier, to enzyme cocktails, and finally to genetic engineering techniques to design a "super digester" of these complex structural materials. In the WPI Bioprocess Center, naturally occurring organisms have been isolated and their genes modified to generate enhanced enzymes for improved and cost-effective cellulolytic breakdown. As part of our ongoing efforts, starting with dissected termite gut; native organisms have been cultivated and modified to yield enhanced enzymatic activity.

"The Arkansas Bioscience Institute: What it is and its research activities"

Carole Cramer, PhD Executive Director, Arkansas Bioscience Institute at Arkansas State University

The Arkansas Biosciences Institute is a five-member research consortium funded by Arkansas' Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000. The consortium is focused on cutting edge research at the interface of agriculture and medicine with the long term goal of enhancing the health of Arkansans and the nation. At Arkansas State University, a new state-of-the-art research building was constructed to house this new endeavor with a grand opening held in September 2004. Since 2004, dynamic cross-disciplinary research clusters have been developed in four target areas: plant-based bioproduction of proteins for medical and biofuels applications; plant metabolic engineering; molecular innovations in food sciences; and the interface of environment, agriculture, and human disease. The institute provides excellent support facilities in plant transformation and propagation, analytical instrumentation, and microscopy. It also provides a unique interface between researchers focused on plant biology and plant-based bioproduct and those involved with research on human diseases, addiction, neurobiology, and vaccine development. Examples of "discovery at the interface" and efforts to move science toward commercialization will be highlighted.