The Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE) is located on the 4th floor of the new Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) Building. The laboratory was specifically designed to accommodate core research areas in renewable energy (transportation fuels), bioproducts, health, and biomanufacturing. This location and environment enables training of students from multiple departments; facilitates scholarly interactions between industrial collaborators, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty; and facilitates assembly, testing, and translation of prototypes. Fundamental research on enzyme reactions, microbial fermentations, catalysis, biocatalytic reactions, and mechanistic studies of biological systems contributes to a foundational data set for developing and validating predictive, computational models.

Core facilities: The laboratory’s capabilities are enhanced through cooperative research projects with other partners and via shared facilities in Discovery Park and the Colleges of Agriculture and Engineering. Capabilities in imaging, proteomics, and genomics, mass spectrometry, and microbial culture complement those of LORRE. A student office suite, embedded within the LORRE laboratory, co-locates a diverse pool of graduate and undergraduate students near their experiments. Separate office areas in ABE are available to visiting and post-doctoral scholars, industrial partners, and research collaborators to initiate new projects, address industrial research and development needs and to carry out continuing education. LORRE’s collaborations with Materials Engineering enable measurement and modeling of rheological properties of biopolymer, protein, and biomass solutions and slurries including the modeling of rheology of liquefied, concentrated biomass and biopolymer slurries, respectively. Omics are carried through the Purdue Discovery Park (DP) core in mass spectrometry. Advanced instrumental capabilities for multiphoton laser scanning confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, florescence microscopy, and electron microscopy are also accessed through DP. Discovery Park is a unique resource for the campus, and in particular, LORRE.