This project will study how 'electricity-generating' microbial communities work together to convert biomass streams into energy products. The researcher will use sequencing techniques to investigate the microbial community?' response to certain operational conditions, and will be combined with other collected data to effectively characterize it. This project will be conducted at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) under the mentorship of Dr. Shunichi Ishii, who is an expert in studying microbial communities with a developed pipeline for sequencing analysis. The resulting data will provide the foundation for understanding microbial community structure and function, and how to utilize process conditions to maintain optimal performance. The broader implications for this research stretch to all bioenergy technologies, where we are striving to demonstrate the advantages of integrated systems for fuel and chemical production.
The overall goal of the proposed research is utilize modern metagenomics and transcriptomics techniques as part of a systems biology approach for investigating bioelectrochemical systems to uncover the effects of process parameters and biomass-derived streams on community dynamics. This project will be conducted at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) under the mentorship of Dr. Shunichi Ishii, who is an expert in studying microbial communities with a developed pipeline for sequencing analysis. The resulting data will provide the basis for developing process parameters as a management tool for directing and engineering optimal community structure, metabolic capacity, and electrochemical performance in a bioelectrochemical systems. Furthermore, the broader implications for this research stretch to all bioenergy technologies, where we are striving to demonstrate the advantages of integrated systems for fuel and chemical production.
This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
