BiotechnologyChemical Engineering, Michigan State University

Biotechnology

Projects combining biology and microbiology with engineering.

Go to Research Project Index for all Research Project Categories.

Life Cycle Models of Biobased Product Systems

Over the next century, a much larger fraction of chemicals, materials and fuels will be produced from plant raw materials. These biobased industrial products offer the potential for a much more sustainable economy based on environmentally-superior products. In order to realize the full economic and environmental benefits of biobased products, we must carefully analyze and improve their life cycle performance. We are currently involved in life cycle studies involving "refining" of corn, soybeans and forage crops (alfalfa and switchgrass) to fuel ethanol and other products. Our goal is to identify portions of the overall agricultural production, biorefining and product use systems that have the greatest impact on environmental and economic performance so that these areas can be targeted for additional research and improvement.

Investigators (PI is linked): Bruce E. Dale
Categories: Biotechnology, Biobased Industrial Products, Sustainable Economy, Environmental Research, Energy Production

Utilization of Renewable Resources

Eventually more fuels, chemicals and materials will be produced from renewable plant materials. Our current work is focused on pretreatments to increase the conversion of lignocellulose to fermentable sugars. We collaborate with others on the development of microorganisms and engineering strategies to ferment complex mixtures of these sugars. A new project is to genetically engineer plants to express the cellulase (cellulose-hydrolyzing) enzymes in plant tissue and then to develop processing strategies so that these enzymes can retain their activity until they are released in the biorefinery. We are also working to develop optimal mixtures of hydrolytic enzymes to convert the complex carbohydrates in biomass to fermentable sugars.

Investigators (PI is linked): Bruce E. Dale
Categories: Energy Production, Biotechnology, Biobased Industrial Products, Sustainable Economy

Conversion of Biomass into Fuel and Chemicals

The ultimate depletion of gaseous and liquid fuels, largely derived from petroleum, provides a strong incentive for the development of alternative energy and chemical feedstocks. Biomass is a potential renewable source for both energy and chemical feedstocks. Catalytic processes to convert intermediate chemicals of primary biomass conversion to useful chemicals such as 1,3-propanediol, ethylene glycol, and propylene glycol are being explored.

Investigators (PI is linked): Martin C Hawley
Categories: Biotechnology

Biodegradation and Composting Studies

Biodegradation studies on polymeric materials. Fundamental studies and field trials on composting selective waste streams, which includes the new biodegradable materials, and plastics to quality, humic-rich compost. Study and model effect of process parameters and configurations on the composting process, compost characteristics, and microbial populations.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ramani Narayan
Categories: Biotechnology

Biobased and Recyclable Composite Materials

The future of automotive plastics will be dictated by their recyclability potential. Currently, all the metals in automobiles are recycled, whereas the plastics end up in a landfill. Recyclable composite material concepts under study include: 1. Biobased thermoplastic matrices that provides increased adhesion to fiber, and in which the thermoplastic can be effectively recycled. 2. New functionalized thermoplastic matrices in which the reinforcing fiber is composed of wood or modified wood fibers. 3. New thermoset matrix composites with "tailored linkages" amenable to being broken or reformed by specific chemical triggers.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ramani Narayan
Categories: Biotechnology

Metabolic Engineering

Metabolic engineering involves altering intracellular metabolic pathways and controlling carbon flow through these pathways. The internal regulatory mechanisms used by cells to control carbon flow are complex and may vary with environmental conditions and time. For fermentation engineering, stoichiometric models and neural networks are being used to estimate important physiological-state variables (e.g., specific glucose uptake rate) during fed-batch fermentations. The ability to estimate such variables on-line allows control strategies to target the physiological state of the cells, rather than environmental variables. For investigation of metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes), differential pathway fluxes for normal and diseased systems are being determined. Knowledge of the underlying metabolic regulation patterns provides insight into the cause and potential treatments.

Investigators (PI is linked): R Mark Worden
Categories: Biotechnology

Multiphase Biocatalysis

Development of biocatalytic processes involving nonpolar reactants often requires a multiphase approach in which a nonpolar phase is dispersed in the continuous aqueous phase. In such cases, interphase mass transfer is often the rate-limiting step. The mass-transfer rate can be increased by using an emulsifier to create and stabilize dispersions having micron-sized droplets or bubbles. However, the stability imparted by the emulsifier hinders efforts to break the dispersions and recover the phases after the reaction step is complete. Novel polymeric emulsifiers are being used to produce dispersions that can be coalesced on demand by a small change in pH. The size distributions, coalescence rates, and mass-transfer properties and of these dispersions are being measured. The emulsifier-stabilized shell surrounding the dispersed phase is being characterized using freeze-fracture electron microscopy and microcalorimetry. Multiphase biocatalytic systems under development include and chiral biotransformations of nonpolar substrates and use of microbubbles in fermentations.

Investigators (PI is linked): R Mark Worden
Categories: Biotechnology

Metabolic Profiling

In this project, metabolic engineering will be applied to further our mechanistic understanding of diseases, such as Type II diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer diseases. The objective of this project is to quantify the pathway alterations in response to environmental mediators. Knowledge of in-vivo flux distributions in cells at different physiological states is of increasing importance by providing "cellular" targets for evaluation as predictors of the disease.

Investigators (PI is linked): Christina Chan
Categories: Metabolic Engineering, Biotechnology

Systems Biology

This is the study of biology as an integrated system of genetic, protein, metabolite, cellular, and pathway events that are continually changing and inter-related. Gene expression data provide information on pathways relevant to the metabolic models. Although genes yield informative clues to diseases, they do not contain functional information. Disease mechanisms can stem from genetic and environmental causes. The importance of studying biology as a system rather than one gene or protein at a time has become increasingly relevant with the advent of high throughput genomic and proteomic technologies. A systems approach can help explain why some genes respond to a particular environmental stimulus, while others do not.

Investigators (PI is linked): Christina Chan
http://www.egr.msu.edu/sysbio/ Categories: Metabolic Engineering, Biotechnology

Engineering Surfaces and Interfaces

Self-assembly, microcontact printing, and layer-by-layer assembly techniques for surface tuning and patterning are utilized to develop new opto-electronic and bio applications. A variety of materials, such as organic and inorganic molecules, polymers, particles, and biomolecules including cells are used to prepare topologically and functionally structured surfaces for their desired purposes using novel self and directed assembly techniques.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ilsoon Lee
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~leeil/ilsoon_research.html#Ilsoon%20Lee% Categories: Nanomaterials, Biomaterials, Electronic Materials, Polymer Composites, Structural Materials, Polymer Science and Engineering, Colloid and Interface Science, Biotechnology

Protein Expression

Proteins needed for research and commercial applications can be produced by cells grown in bioreactors. The MSU Protein Expression Laboratory was established with funding from the Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor as a research and service facility for recombinant protein expression. Research focuses on developing process control schemes that can determine the cells' physiological state during growth and protein expression and control the physiological state so as to optimize protein production levels.

Investigators (PI is linked): R Mark Worden
http://www.egr.msu.edu/pel Categories: Biotechnology

Adsorption of liposomes on charged polyelectrolyte substrates (Collaborative with Worden and Lee)

One of the problems with some constructions of biomimetic interfaces using lipid bilayers is that no cushion is provided between the bilayer and the substrate to allow for full insertion of membrane proteins, enable their lateral mobility, and provide for ionic reservoirs on either side of the membrane. The deposition of polyelectrolyte multilayers provides ideal cushions for this purpose, and therefore has potential in biosensor applications. In this project, we are studying the adsorption of fluorescently labeled vesicles on charged polyelectrolyte multilayers (PDAC, PAH, PEG, SPS) deposited on glass slides, using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) and fluorescence recovery after pattern photobleaching (FRAPP) to estimate the mobility and lateral diffusion coefficients of the lipids in the bilayer. The resulting interfaces were also characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). This work is being done in collaboration with the research groups of Dr. Ilsoon Lee and Dr. RM Worden.

Investigators (PI is linked): Robert Y. Ofoli
Categories: Biotechnology, Colloid and Interface Science, Biomaterials, Nanomaterials

Catalytic transformation of biorenewables to petrochemicals

An important global challenge is the need to eventually replace finite fossil fuels with viable renewable resources. Currently, there are many significant initiatives on converting biomass to alternative fuels, but much less activity on using renewables for petrochemicals production. There is much knowledge on the transformation of crude oil to fuels and chemical feedstocks. However, due to significant differences between crude oil and biomass, these well-tested transformation pathways are not suitable for biomass conversion. In this project, we are developing generic methods for synthesizing catalytic nanoparticles (NPs) and surface modification to attach molecular catalysts (MCs), developing protocols for physical and/or chemical immobilization of catalytic NPs and NP-MC complexes in microfluidic channels, and assessing and optimizing catalytic NPs in both classical and microfluidic reactors. We will use the conversion of lactic acid to glycerol as the model reaction. Fatty acids from plant oils represent another important class of abundant biorenewables. To convert these to petrochemicals, we will anchor molecular catalysts to catalytic bimetallic nanoparticles to obtain NP-MC hybrid (NMH), and assess NMH catalyst effectiveness in microreactors using the hydrogenation of selected fatty acids to petrochemicals as model reactions. This is a collaborative project with Professor Obare (Department of Chemistry at UNCC; adjunct in CHEMS).

Investigators (PI is linked): Robert Y. Ofoli
Categories: Nanomaterials, Colloid and Interface Science, Biotechnology, Biobased Industrial Products, Sustainable Economy

Opto-electrochemical characterization of bilayer-embedded biomacromolecules in TIR geometry

Membrane-bound enzymes and proteins can serve as ion channels and/or catalyze a variety of biological processes. These processes can be characterized by a variety of techniques, including optics and electrochemistry. In this project, we are developing surface chemistries to enable us to use ITO as an effective electrode on which bilayer lipid membranes can be deposited to provide an electrode platform for simultaneous optical and electrochemical measurements of protein activity. We also have capabilities for physical characterization of biomacromolecules (fluidity and mobility measurements) on planar as well as tethered bilayers by fluorescence recovery after pattern photobleaching (FRAPP) experiments, enabling us to do a complete study of many enzymes and proteins of medical interest.

Investigators (PI is linked): Robert Y. Ofoli
Categories: Nanomaterials, Biomaterials, Colloid and Interface Science, Biotechnology

Biomedical Compatibility of Ti-Al-Nb Alloys for Implant Applications

The attention given biocompatible Ti alloys has been generated by a number of important technological and economic factors. Within the last three decades a strong push has been made to replace human bone and teeth with strong, lightweight, and stiff biocompatible Ti alloys. To date the material of choice used in implants is titanium-vanadium-aluminum (Ti-V-Al) alloys because of their excellent biocompatibility and their combination of high specific strength, corrosion resistance, low density, good ductility and elastic modulus, oxidation resistance, conventional processability, fatigue strength, and fracture toughness. In particular Ti-6Al-4V(wt.%), which was initially developed as a high-temperature aerospace alloy, is a commonly used implant material due to its excellent properties and processability compared to other Ti-V-Al alloys. However, V is a potentially toxic element; therefore, other alloying elements are currently being examined. In particular substitution of niobium (Nb) for V is attractive as this does not result in degradation of several mechanical properties, and the microstructural phases present in Ti-Al-Nb alloys are similar to those in the Ti-V-Al system.

Investigators (PI is linked): Carl Boehlert
Categories: Biotechnology, Biomaterials

Ceramic Membrane Water Filtration Combined with Ozonation

In this research, we are developing a novel ozone and catalytic membrane filtration laboratory scale drinking water treatment system to meet USA-EPA Stage 2 D/DBP regulatory requirements. The work is focused on optimizing the system for catalyst coated performance of membranes to control the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as total trihalomethanes and haloacetic acid. Ozonation by-products (OBPs), including aldehydes, ketones and ketoacids, are monitored and their concentrations are found to decrease with the application of ozone and iron oxide coated membrane filtration, as compared to that observed with either ozonation or uncoated ozonation/membrane filtration. A 5 kD MWCO membrane, coated with 40 layers of iron oxide and sintered at 900�C, combined with ozonation (gaseous ozone concentration of 2.5 g/m3) produced permeate water that met the EPA regulatory requirements for TTHMs and HAAs set under Stage 2 D/DBPs Rule and is effective in reducing the concentrations of ozonation by-products formed.

Investigators (PI is linked): Melissa J. Baumann
Categories: Nanomaterials, Biotechnology, Advanced Ceramic Materials

Self-assembled, Nanostructured Biomimetic Interfaces

Living cells efficiently perform many vital sensing, signaling, catalytic, and bioelectronic processes at the molecular scale. These processes typically occur at cell membranes, whose principal components include a bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) and membrane proteins. The BLM's nanoscale thickness (5 nm) and high electrical resistance give it unique optical and bioelectronic properties. A diverse array of membrane proteins embedded in the BLM imparts the highly specific activities exhibited by cell membranes. These activities can, in principle, be mimicked in the laboratory by reconstituting appropriate membrane proteins into artificial BLM. We are using self and directed assembly tools to fabricate functional and nanostructured biomimetic-interfaces that use lipid bilayers, membrane proteins (such as neuropathy target esterase), and other nanostructured components (e.g. polyelectrolyte multilayers) to reproduce cell-membrane processes. These systems have outstanding potential for conducting fundamental studies of nanoscale biological processes and for developing new technologies, including high-throughput drug screening systems, research tools to study membrane proteins, and high-performance biosensors.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ilsoon Lee
http://www.biomimetic.org/ Categories: Nanomaterials, Biomaterials, Polymer Composites, Structural Materials, Polymer Science and Engineering, Colloid and Interface Science, Biotechnology

Bio-Carbon Nanomaterials

Carbon nanoparticles are available in several geometries, including spherical fullerenes, cylindrical nanotubes and planar nanoplatelets. While these nanoparticles all share the same graphenic structure that imparts semiconductor properties, the diverse geometries afford a spectrum of unique chemical, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties. Composite materials containing carbon nanoparticles electrically coupled to biomolecules could yield an array of high-performance technologies. Inclusion of a biological recognition element, and any necessary cofactor or mediator, allows the composite electrode to serve as an integrated, bioactive electrode unit (i.e., bio-carbon network). This work includes (1) development of simple and rapid methods to modify and process carbon nanoparticles for self and directed assembly, (2) incorporation of the nanoparticles into bio-carbon networks, and (3) characterization of the network�s fundamental properties.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ilsoon Lee
Categories: Nanomaterials, Biomaterials, Polymer Composites, Structural Materials, Polymer Science and Engineering, Colloid and Interface Science, Biotechnology

Wrinkle-free Nanomechanical Films

Wrinkling or buckling is a common natural phenomenon which occurs in numerous forms on many different length scales. Common forms of buckling include the wrinkling of human skin, the surface of many dried fruits, and even the formation of mountain ranges. Generally buckling occurs when a stiff upper material on a more compliant substrate is compressed. Compressive forces can be generated physically (e.g., stretching or compressing a compliant substrate) or simply by raising or lowering the temperature of the materials. Wrinkling and related phenomena in various materials have been studied from the standpoint of micro and bio mechanics. How and why wrinkles form has been well studied; however, preventing the occurrence of such a phenomenon remains a challenge. The goal of this proposed work is to study how nanoparticles influence the mechanical (or thermal) wrinkling (or buckling) of thin films, and to develop such wrinkle free films for various applications.

Investigators (PI is linked): Ilsoon Lee
Categories: Biotechnology, Colloid and Interface Science, Polymer Science and Engineering, Structural Materials, Polymer Composites, Nanomaterials

Lab Homepage - http://www.egr.msu.edu/abel

Investigators (PI is linked): S. Patrick Walton
http://www.egr.msu.edu/abel Categories: Biotechnology

in vitro Interactions of RNAs with Recombinant Human Dicer

Mammalian Dicer is known to participate in RNA interference (RNAi) by cleaving double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and pre-micro RNA (pre-miRNA) substrates into ~22 nucleotide short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and miRNAs, respectively. However, recent evidence has shown that Dicer, TRBP (the human immunodeficiency virus transactivating response RNA-binding protein), and Argonaute 2 (Ago 2) form a ternary complex and that this complex is necessary for the formation of active RISC programmed with a single-stranded guide RNA. While Dicer alone has been shown to form stable complexes with dsRNAs and siRNAs, its interactions with ssRNAs have not been characterized. In this context, we are investigating if recombinant human Dicer (rhDcr) alone can bind in a sequence-independent manner to 21-nt single-stranded RNAs (ssRNAs) and investigating the possible biological roles/consequences of such behavior.

Investigators (PI is linked): S. Patrick Walton
http://www.egr.msu.edu/abel/research.html Categories: Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, Biomolecular Engineering

Molecular Barcode-Labeled Aptamers for Parallel Protein Measurements

Proteomics is the measurement of all proteins in a sample. Current technologies for proteomics are usually laborious, and important information can be lost due to incomplete protein separation. We are combining two existing technologies, molecular barcodes (MBs) and aptamers, to develop a new technology for parallel protein measurements using oligonucleotide microarrays. MBs are a set of unique DNA labels that can be used to detect a single nucleic acid species from a mixed population. Aptamers are high affinity nucleic acid molecules that can bind to specific target proteins. The goal of our current research is to generate MB-containing aptamers and use them to measure the concentrations of several proteins simultaneously.

Investigators (PI is linked): S. Patrick Walton
http://www.egr.msu.edu/abel/research.html Categories: Biomolecular Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biotechnology

Quantitative, Genomics-Based Measurement of Transcription Factor Levels

Inappropriate/unregulated expression of transcription factors (TFs) has been implicated in many diseases, including cancer, AIDS, and diabetes. Current methods for measurement of TF expression are inadequate for simultaneous measurement of all relevant proteins. Our work seeks to provide a genomics-based, parallel method for the measurement of TF expression using MBs and microarrays. This method will also be useful for analysis of TF binding affinities for their consensus and mutated target sequences.