The Four-eyed Journal » Biotechnology

A step towards creating renewable petroleum

jhay — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:25:37 +0000

In the vampire vs werewolves sci-fi movie Underworld, vampires have developed the technology to create artificial blood, thus eliminated or minimized their need to go after humans whenever they needed to feed.

Humans and vampires had managed to live in a peaceful co-existence. Or so it appeared.

The same thing could arise once the US has fully developed the technology to create artificial petroleum. Such a technology has now taken root from the study of researchers from the University of Minnesota in the US, led by graduate student Janice Frias whose team has just figured out how to create ketones using bacteria, sunlight and carbon dioxide.

The U of M team is using Synechococcus, a bacterium that fixes carbon dioxide in sunlight and converts CO2 to sugars. Next, they feed the sugars to Shewanella, a bacterium that produces hydrocarbons. This turns CO2, a greenhouse gas produced by combustion of fossil fuel petroleum, into hydrocarbons.

Their study funded by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-energy will appear in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

And even as this news is spread in print and on the Internet, the University of Minnesota is filing patents on the process.

If the study would progress as it is envisioned, perhaps within a decade or two, the US would now have a technology to produce its own petroleum thanks, again, to bacteria, sunlight and CO2.

Perhaps by then, the American thirst for oil would be tamed. This would then minimize the need for their active involvement in the Middle East, assuming by that time that the region’s oil reserves have not yet run dry.

Though I am uncertain how OPEC members would react to such a situation that the US with its artificial petroleum technology would become one of their competitors. I am also uncertain as to whether the US would be willing to share such a technology (wishful thinking, I know) with the rest of the world but since a patent for it has already been filed, then it would become another way for them to maintain their global economic dominance.

Nevertheless, it’s still good news that renewable petroleum is much closer to becoming a reality than fiction. As more sources of alternative energy become available, the more chances we have of saving our plant from destruction while we continue on with our civilization.

E. coli strain engineered to produce biodiesel directly from biomass

jhay — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:11:57 +0000

We commonly know the E. coli (Escherichia coli) as the bacteria that can cause serious food poisonings and a PR and marketing disaster for food manufacturers. But this only caused by a strain of E. coli called O157:H7, the rest of other strains are harmless and in fact have been living inside the intestines of warm-blooded organisms like cattle and humans.

Just recently, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered a strain of E. coli to produce bio diesel fuel directly from biomass without the aid of additional chemical modifications.

“Biosynthesis of microbial fatty acids produces fatty acids bound to a carrier protein, the accumulation of which inhibits the making of additional fatty acids,” Steen says. “Normally E. coli doesn’t waste energy making excess fat, but by cleaving fatty acids from their carrier proteins, we’re able to unlock the natural regulation and make an abundance of fatty acids that can be converted into a number of valuable products. Further, we engineered our E. coli to no longer eat fatty acids or use them for energy.”

After successfully diverting fatty acid metabolism toward the production of fuels and other chemicals from glucose, the JBEI researchers engineered their new strain of E. coli to produce hemicellulases — enzymes that are able to ferment hemicellulose, the complex sugars that are a major constituent of cellulosic biomass and a prime repository for the energy locked within plant cell walls.

Plant waste, such as those from the food industry can now be a source of bio diesel fuel thanks to this engineered strain of E. coli. Another use would be to directly farm plant matter, the kind that we humans don’t use for food, and we have ourselves a source of bio diesel that is renewable, sustainable and potentially cheaper.

Hopefully, this would not lead into a genetic nightmare or be used by the West to retain control over the fuel-producing industry. Then again this might be just another exercise in wishful thinking.

Bio fieldtrip photos, WordPress 2.1 and Cutline 1.1

jhay — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:53:57 +0000

It’s been quite a long while since I last posted anything new on this blog which could be attributed to the following:

Busy, busy at the university

The mid-term examinations have just passed and with that some major school stuff has kept my hands full since the last time I updated this blog. A Biology field trip of which the photos below were taken and the upcoming student elections are what have kept me away from blogging.

We visited the Carfel Vistamar Marine Museum at Anilao, Batangas. There, we took photos of marine life in its various forms, shapes, sizes and colors. From coral crabs to sea fans to conch shells, from sea urichins to the jaws of a shark; we had the chance of taking an up-close and quite personal look at all of them.

After visiting the Carfel Museum, we then took a 30-minute bus then jeepney ride to Planet Dive Resort to do what all of us have been waiting for, to swim and do some snorkling!

More photos could be found here, and if you’re one of the Bio or Envi students who were with me during the fieldtrip, you’re free to download the photos for your personal use. Just don’t forget to mention that I took those photos okay?

It’s WordPress 2.1 under the hood baby!

Yup! The Four-eyed Journal has finally made the switch to join the other WordPress blogs to sport its latest version, WordPress 2.1. The upgrade has been postponed mainly because of the plugin compatibility issues, crappy broadband connection and of course free time. It was just this morning that I finally had the time, the will and patience to push through with the upgrade.

After following the upgrade steps: back-up all blog files and data, deactivate the plugins, install the new WP 2.1 files, install the updates to the plugins, doing the actual upgrade then finally, logging in to your WP 2.1-powered blog. Ella just sings to the right tune so far and I’m liking it.

Lastly, the upgrade to WP 2.1 has led many others before me to sport the latest version of this uber cool theme, Cutline 1.1 by Chis Pearson. You may notice little no to difference in the site’s appearance but most of the upgrades are under the hood. Some new features were added to the Four-eyed Journal but more on that in a later post.

Quick links: bacteria, viruses and fungi

jhay — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:14:10 +0000

This is the very first “quick links” post on this blog and I plan to do this at least three times a week, it’s part of breaking the isolationism the Four-eyed Journal has been in since like ever. So it’s time to spread the link loves!

Ed Yong has a piece about how bacteria in our guts could be linked to obesity. Have read something about this issue before, too bad I lost the links, none the less Ed makes a good point in that this is just another positive step in understanding the workings of our bodies and we should not stop here.

On Neatorama, Alex asks what could go wrong now that scientists have revived the Spanish Flu virus. Excellent question, though I’m sure (and hope) that the scientists have lots of good reasons why they resurrected another mass-killer bug. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

chez mistral makes a connection between Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and tries to look at how global warming is affecting wine growing. Wine enthusiasts would probably get interested in global warming once they realize that it directly affects the quality and price of wine.

Well that’s it for now, more link loves coming soon.

Genetically-modified peanut butter

jhay — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:26:26 +0000

Well it’s a guess, that would probably come true in the next 3-5 years from now. The go signal has been given to scientists to create genetically-modified peanuts that are more nutritious, more resistant to pests, less allergic to those who are allergic to peanuts and easier to grow and cultivate.

The signal came from the peanut industry led by the American Peanut Council, (Yes, such organization does exists.) They say that competitors from China and India have been working a lot lately on genetically modified peanuts, it’s now America’s time to do it. The beauty of the free economy; in the quest for more profits certain things would have to fly out the window, like social and health concerns about GMOs or genetically-modified organisms.

Now genetic engineering per se is not bad, heck; we’re using it right now to treat certain cancers and birth-defects. Scientists just have to do their homeworks better so that decision makers can make the best of out them. You never know what GMOs can do to your body or to other creatures on this planet, so it will be greatly beneficial to be extra careful about tinkering with the genes of any living organism.

That includes peanuts, and in turn its derivative peanut butter. That yummy brown paste that is the essential ingredient of the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, and for us Filipinos Kare-kare.

We may think that this is only the first instance where science and genetic engineering will work on peanuts. We better guess again as not so long ago, the Peanut Collaborative Research Support Program (P- CRSP) which is funded by the US Agency for International Development (AID) has worked with the National Food Authority/Food Development Center (NFA/FDC) and University of the Philippines (UP) to put peanut butter in a better social use. They developed a technology to fortify peanut butter with Vitamin A so as to make the delivery of this important vitamin to the people, particularly among children. Lack of Vitamin A is a leading cause of blindness amongst them. Noble isn’t it? Let’s just hope and remind scientists that after they have tinkered with the peanuts, it better be good for all of us.