Future of Engineering
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Using DNA Shuffling, E.coli Gives Hydrogen from Sugar
Texas A&M Professor Thomas Wood and his research team have successfully genetically manipulated Escherichia coli to produce hydrogen fuel from common sugar.
E. coli is commonly associated with food poisoning from uncooked meat, but the bacteria is also found naturally in the human body. Wood said that the average person has eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of bacteria in their body at any given time. This bacteria naturally produces hydrogen to increase the pH of its surroundings for survival.
Wood has spent the previous 17 years manipulating the bacteria to do different things. Wood said that his research group initially started out with the wrong assumptions, but once the research settled its focus on E. coli, progress began moving along rapidly.
"We have used a process called DNA shuffling, in which we separate and re-splice E. coli genes in random sequences. We eventually found a combination which produced more hydrogen," Wood said
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E. coli is commonly associated with food poisoning from uncooked meat, but the bacteria is also found naturally in the human body. Wood said that the average person has eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) of bacteria in their body at any given time. This bacteria naturally produces hydrogen to increase the pH of its surroundings for survival.
Wood has spent the previous 17 years manipulating the bacteria to do different things. Wood said that his research group initially started out with the wrong assumptions, but once the research settled its focus on E. coli, progress began moving along rapidly.
"We have used a process called DNA shuffling, in which we separate and re-splice E. coli genes in random sequences. We eventually found a combination which produced more hydrogen," Wood said
More from here
Labels: Bio-engineering, Energy-Environment-Engineering
PermaLink - Using DNA Shuffling, E.coli Gives Hydrogen from Sugar posted by Ecacofonix : 7:22 AM
