Jul 2 2013
Among the increasingly valuable roles fungi are playing in the biotechnology industry is their ability to produce enzymes capable of releasing sugars from plants, trees, and other forms of complex biomass, which can then be converted to biofuels and biobased chemicals.
Advances in fungal biology and in bioengineering fungal systems industrial applications are explored in a series of articles in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available on the Industrial Biotechnology website.
Guest Editors Scott Baker, PhD, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, Richland, WA), Antoine Margeot, PhD, IFP Energies nouvelles (Rueil-Malmaison Cedex, France), and Adrian Tsang, PhD (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada), collaborated on the IB IN DEPTH—Special Section on Fungal Biology in Industrial Biotechnology.
In the Overview "Fungi and Industrial Biotechnology – A Special Issue for an Amazing Kingdom," Dr. Baker says, "For more than a century fungi have had an enormous footprint in industrial biotechnology, from the first US biotechnology patent to current research in biofuels and renewable chemicals."
The Special Section includes Review articles by Kevin McCluskey, PhD, Curator of the Fungal Genetics Stock Center at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, entitled "Biological Resource Centers Provide Data and Characterized Living Material for Industrial Biotechnology," and by Justin Powlowski, PhD's group at the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Etienne Jourdier, PhD, and colleagues present a "Comprehensive Study and Modeling of Acetic Acid Effect on Trichoderma reesei Growth." Contributing the research study "In-Stream Itaconic Acid Recovery from Aspergillus terreus Fedbatch Fermentation” is a research team from TNO Microbiology & Systems Biology, Zeist, the Netherlands, let by Professor Peter Punt.
Included in the Fungal Biology Special Section is an IB Interview with Blake Simmons, PhD, Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI, Emeryville, CA) and Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA), and Jon Magnuson, PhD, JBEI and PNNL. John Nicksich, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (PNNL, Richland, WA), describes the cutting-edge technology used to explore and bioengineer fungi in the Catalyzing Innovation article "EMSL Capabilities and Expertise: Pushing the Frontiers of Bioengineering."
“Scientific and technological advances in the life sciences are providing exciting new ways to engage old and familiar microbial friends in a number of novel and innovative industrial biotechnology activities,” says Larry Walker, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
About the Journal
Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental products and processes, published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal reports on the science, business, and policy developments of the emerging global bioeconomy, including biobased production of energy and fuels, chemicals, materials, and consumer goods. The articles published include critically reviewed original research in all related sciences (biology, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering, agriculture), in addition to expert commentary on current policy, funding, markets, business, legal issues, and science trends. Industrial Biotechnology offers the premier forum bridging basic research and R&D with later-stage commercialization for sustainable biobased industrial and environmental applications.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Environmental Engineering Science and Sustainability: The Journal of Record. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.