Climate Change
1 videos • 0 views • by Int'l Centre for Genetic Eng. and Biotechnology Five Groups at ICGEB New Delhi develop technologies for the production of clean energy from biological sources. The goal of the Microbial Engineering Group (Yazdani) is to develop cost-effective processes to produce second-generation biofuels; they isolate novel enzymes (cellulases, xylanases) with higher specificity towards cellulosic biomass, and engineer fungi with enzymes that can produce biofuels from this energy source. The Group uses metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches to produce highdensity fuels and green chemicals. Current projects in the Yeast Biofuel Group (Gaur) aim to develop novel yeast strains for microbial biorefineries to produce fuels and chemicals in a cost-effective manner. They are developing robust yeast strains for the production of ethanol, fatty acid ethyl ester, xylitol, xylo-oligosaccharide, and TAG from molasses and lignocellulosic biomasses. The Group is focusing on scale-up studies for industrial use and advanced fuel and chemical production. Algal Biology is the focus of the Omics of Algae Group (Jutur), where research aims to understand the molecular changes within algal systems through an integrative multi-omics approach with well-defined functional pathways that will elucidate an effective strategy for converting light/carbon source to biomass, biofuels and biorenewables (B3) for sustainable solutions. Findings will provide important breakthroughs on the essential metabolism in these microalgae, required for biotechnological improvement of next-generation biofuels/biorenewables. The Systems Biology for Biofuels Group (Srivastava) conducts quantitative metabolic analyses, including the development of genome-scale metabolic models of biotechnologically-important microorganisms to improve biofuel and bioproduct yields and rates, and investigates marine cyanobacteria as factories to produce biofuel candidate molecules. The Metabolic Engineering Group (Kumar) has various projects of industrial interest, working on a sustainable algal biofuels programme using synthetic biology and genome-editing tools. They aim to reduce carbon footprints by introducing Carbon Concentration Mechanisms (CCM) into marine algae and knocking out genes that limit the carbon capture efficiency of photosynthetic organisms via RNAi/CRISPR Cas9. The process to develop an alkane-producing algal system for “drop-in jetfuel” is also underway, via synthetic biology. The Group also works on enhancing artemisinin biosynthesis in the Artemisia annua plant, via chloroplast engineering to produce a complete artemisinin drug in edible plants for coherent treatment of malaria.