Andrew Leakey: A Q&A With CABBI’s New Director

by | Nov 19, 2020 | News

Andrew Leakey was named CABBI’s Director in late August, succeeding Evan DeLucia. He takes over as CABBI is hitting its stride in Year 3 of a five-year, $115 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Despite the many unusual challenges of 2020, CABBI has...

CABBI Scientists Part of New DOD Grant to Advance Bioindustrial Manufacturing

by | Nov 10, 2020 | News

CABBI Team Sequences Miscanthus Genome

by | Oct 28, 2020 | Feedstock Production, News

­An international research team has sequenced the full genome of an ornamental variety of miscanthus, a wild perennial grass emerging as a prime candidate for sustainable bioenergy crops. The genome project — led by scientists at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and...

CABBI Researchers Collaborate on Oilcane Pilot Project

by | Oct 20, 2020 | Conversion, Feedstock Production, News, Research Profiles

From southeastern Florida to northern Mississippi to the Midwestern Corn Belt, CABBI scientists have struck sustainable oil with sugarcane. But the crop’s potential value to the renewable energy sector earns this particular variety a more appropriate designation:...

Illinois Team Tracks COVID ‘Spike’ Protein for 2020 iGEM Competition

by | Aug 13, 2020 | News

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for a worldwide competition that brings high school and college students together to tackle big questions in synthetic biology. But it also provided a unique research opportunity for the University of Illinois...

Researchers Shed Light on New Enzymatic Reaction

by | Jun 8, 2020 | Conversion, News

Researchers have identified key ingredients for producing high-value chemical compounds in an environmentally friendly fashion: repurposed enzymes, curiosity, and a little bit of light. A paper published in Nature describes a study led by Xiaoqiang Huang (pictured), a...