ABE's Solomon wins DoE Career Award
People use enzymes to create fuels from plants, fungi to produce antimalarial drugs, and E. coli bacteria to generate life-saving insulin. These systems are attractive because they are sustainable and rely on renewable plant biomass, but they are still wildly inefficient.
Kevin Solomon, a Purdue assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, plans to improve the efficiency by using giraffe, wildebeest, zebra and horse dung and a U.S. Department of Energy Career Award, which supports the development of research programs by outstanding scientists early in their careers. The DOE will provide $750,000 over five years to fund his proposal, “Genetic Tools to Optimize Lignocellulose Conversion in Anaerobic Fungi and Interrogate Their Genomes.”
