Energy & Biosciences Institute

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and its partners in Singapore have received a 5-year, $14.8M grant to create the Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability, which will address hunger in a novel way: creating food building blocks at the microbial level! The PreFerS team, led by FSHN @ Illinois Professor Yong-Su Jin, will engineer microorganisms to convert sugars and inedible parts of crops into healthier foods, to make food production more sustainable and address "hidden hunger" — a growing epidemic of micronutient deficiency. The National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) awarded the grant to the Advanced Digital Sciences Center (ADSC), a U. of I. entity in Singapore. PreFerS will be anchored at NRF’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise - CREATE on the National University of Singapore campus. The PreFerS leadership team from Illinois also includes Ting Lu of Illinois BIOE; Michael Miller of FSHN; and Vijay Singh of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. U. of I. co-investigators include Christopher Rao and Zhao Huimin of ChBE Illinois; iSEE Associate Director for Research Jeremy Guest and Na Wei of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois; and former Illinois Research Scientist Yalin Li, now at Rutgers University. The proposal is supported by iSEE and assisted by Guest and Madhu Khanna, iSEE’s director and Alvin H. Baum Family Chair. Read more: https://lnkd.in/g_NeqfMF University of Illinois College of ACES | The Grainger College of Engineering

One of the most dangerous consequences of climate change is the sudden presence of a #wildfire. In the University of California, Berkeley's Epidemiology and Computational Biology department, scientists are working hard to uncover how wildfire smoke affects the DNA of people living in the county of Alameda. 🔥🔬 The research team, including researchers from Sonoma Technology, Inc., the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and Stanford University, will examine samples from 5,000 adults in the East Bay at two time points in 2020 and 2021–coinciding with the largest wildfire year in California history. Gather the details on the upcoming project by reading more.

GO BEARS~!

In this day and age, there are many ways to produce and store energy: wind, hydro, lithium, and... cement?🚧 Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a way to store energy with a device known as a supercapacitor--made just from water, cement, and carbon black. This ingenious approach has the potential to solve the pressing issue of energy storage, and it all comes back to the material beneath our feet. Get further details by reading this article from BBC.

Multiple Berkeley startups were spotlighted in Fast Company's 2024 List of World Changing Ideas, which honors the businesses and organizations that are developing creative solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. 💡🧠 AsparaGlue, which is developing a superglue-like medical adhesive that can be uniquely used for external wound closure and internal tissue adhesion and sealing, and MZR Neurotech, which makes an EEG ear sensor for sleep monitoring, were named on the top 12 health products. Both are from Berkeley SkyDeck’s inaugural batch. UPSIDE Foods was named as a finalist in the food category for their cultivated meat products. Pivot Bio was listed as a finalist in the both the agriculture and general excellence categories for being a leader in sustainable agriculture. Congratulations to these Berkeley organizations!🎉

We at the EBI are glad to see our two affiliated universities, UC Berkeley and UIUC, included in this list!

Researchers at our partner campus University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have come out with a remarkably interesting study looking at the global flows of #airpollution and how they relate to #economic activity in the global supply chain. 💲🌬 “Our study is unique in combining atmospheric transport of air pollution with supply chain analysis, as it tells us where the pollution is coming from and who is ultimately responsible for it,” says lead author Sandy Dall'erba. Get all the details by reading more.

🌧️ ☔ As we wave goodbye to aerosols, we might say hello to heavier downpours. A study by Berkeley Lab scientists investigated the future of precipitation patterns as aerosol pollution decreases: https://bit.ly/49s4vuW Mark D. Risser, Ph.D., William Collins #ClimateChange #Aerosols

The world’s first renewable island will soon be built off the coast of Denmark, and Shell has pledged their support. This island will leverage the best wind conditions in order to produce large amounts of green energy.🏝⚡ “Bringing decades of experience with large offshore infrastructure projects and strengths as a global energy company, the addition of Shell bolsters our consortium and our bid to construct Denmark’s first energy island,” says Thomas Dalsgaard, partner of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Read about the implications and what to expect by reading more.⬇

Humans have worked with bacteria to make all sorts of creations: yogurt, sourdough bread, beer, cheese, and now textiles. 👕⚗ The start-up Modern Synthesis has come up with a way to create sustainable fabrics, helping cut down on emissions within the fashion industry. Their methodology: feeding bacteria to create #nanocellulose, a special version of nature's "building block," cellulose. Nanocellulose is eight times stronger than steel on a fiber level, and when combined with a natural textile material, can produce clothing. Get more details on the creation process by watching this CNN video linked below! https://lnkd.in/gt2Q_Hzv #fashion #greenchemistry #bacteria #sustainability