Thursday
Jun032010
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 09:23AM MTS51- James Liao - Turning Microbes into Fuel Refineries
Listen/Download: mp3 (38.5 min | 35.5 megs)
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In this podcast Carl Zimmer talks with James Liao, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. Zimmer and Liao discuss his research into engineering microbes to make fuel.
Today, we get most of the fuel for our cars out of the ground. It's a process fraught with dangerous consequences, from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the rise in global temperatures thanks to greenhouse gases. Dr. Liao is among a growing number of scientists who think that microbes can help us out of this predicament.
We talked about the attraction of microbe-derived fuels, and the challenges of getting bacteria to turn air, water, and sun into something that can power your car.
Selected Publications
Engineering the isobutanol biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli by comparison of three aldehyde reductase/alcohol dehydrogenase genes.
An integrated network approach identifies the isobutanol response network of Escherichia coli
Download: mp3 (38.5 min | 35.5 megs)
Subscribe for free in iTunes
Get it with the MicrobeWorld iPhone App
In this podcast Carl Zimmer talks with James Liao, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. Zimmer and Liao discuss his research into engineering microbes to make fuel.Today, we get most of the fuel for our cars out of the ground. It's a process fraught with dangerous consequences, from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the rise in global temperatures thanks to greenhouse gases. Dr. Liao is among a growing number of scientists who think that microbes can help us out of this predicament.
We talked about the attraction of microbe-derived fuels, and the challenges of getting bacteria to turn air, water, and sun into something that can power your car.
Selected Publications
Engineering the isobutanol biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli by comparison of three aldehyde reductase/alcohol dehydrogenase genes.
An integrated network approach identifies the isobutanol response network of Escherichia coli
Download: mp3 (38.5 min | 35.5 megs)
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