News
University of Portsmouth academic featured in the Winter 2013 BBSRC Business
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:21:00 GMT
“It’s said that great things come from small beginnings. In this case, a tiny marine crustacean could revolutionise biofuel production and usher in a new generation of liquid fuels for buses, cars and aeroplanes that would effectively be powered by wood.” – BBSRC Business Winter 2013 edition
The findings of a team of researchers, including Dr Simon Cragg, Reader in Zoology at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Marine Science, have been featured in the latest edition of the BBSRC. Dr Cragg, as part of a team which includes Professor Simon McQueen-Mason of the University of York, is currently undertaking groundbreaking research into the potential of unlocking biofuel production through gribbles, 2mm wood-boring isopods of the Limnoriidae family, which have been the bane of ships for centuries. Researchers are looking to harness the gribble’s enzymes in order to convert waste from agricultural industries which, when fermented, could act as biofuel. High amounts of energy are stored within the woody biomass, lignocellulose, which, without intense heat, is unable to be harnessed. However, through a unique digestive process which acts as a pre-treatment, effectively partially breaking down lignocellulose, the gribble may offer a new approach to unlocking this energy. The team now faces the challenge of recreating the chemical process which takes place inside the gribble on an industrial scale.
John McGeehan, Reader in Structural Biology at the University of Portsmouth, has been using a particle accelerator, the Diamond Light Source synchrotron (based in Harwell, Oxfordshire) in order to delve into enzymes in the gribble, measuring how they function under different conditions. The results of these findings are due to be published soon.
Funded by a BBSRC United States Partnering Award, US partners are looking to sequence the whole gribble genome. TGAC will then assist the University of Portsmouth team in assembling it.
“We now have the opportunity to build a whole genome for our creature, supported by our York-based colleagues, by The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) in Norwich, and US collaborators at three different institutions,” says Dr Simon Cragg.
This research is part of theBBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC), a £24M investment that brings together six world-class research programmes to develop the UK’s bioenergy research capacity.
The BBSRC article can be viewed here
For further information please contact
Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, University of York
simon.mcqueenmason@york.ac.uk
Dr Simon Cragg, University of Portsmouth
Simon.Cragg@port.ac.uk