Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI)

CABBI Director Andrew Leakey will share information about CABBI's decarbonization efforts, and CABBI Co-PIs Wendy Yang and Kaiyu Guan of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center will discuss research on nitrous oxide emissions and ag carbon accounting technology.

This summer, sophomore Andre Mendoza of Vanderbilt University became an expert on root turnover in bioenergy crops, working with CABBI research mentor Janith Chandrasoma, PhD and Co-PI Evan DeLucia! Mendoza was one of 11 interns in CABBI's 2024 Research Internship in Sustainable Bioenergy (RISE) program, offering first-time research experience to undergrads from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. They worked with research mentors at six CABBI sites and engaged with social and professional development programs. They also had the chance to present their work at an Undergrad Research Symposium at the retreat – a thrill for students and mentors alike! Watching Mendoza present his work "was like living the dream of being a professor. Andre did great," Chandrasoma said. For his part, Medoza now plans to explore research opportunities at Vanderbilt. Read more in our CABBI feature: https://lnkd.in/gt572_Kj Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology | Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory | Andrew Leakey | Wendy Yang | Brian Pfleger | Jennifer Pett-Ridge | Yasuo Yoshikuni | Christopher Rao | Melanie McReynolds, PhD | Kankshita Swaminathan | Vijay Singh

Super excited to be part of bridging the gap between foundational and translational science. Thank you to the numerous people (Montana Hernandez, Alayna Trejo, Meiwei Chen, and Julian Roman) who all helped behind the scenes to bring this research to publication. Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

🔸 Research news: A CABBI team has designed efficient bioenergy crops that need less water to grow! Drought stress has long been a limiting factor for crop production around the world, a challenge exacerbated by #climate change. Improving plants' water use efficiency (WUE) can help crops grow with less water and avoid drought stress, but it has also been associated with lower productivity when water is plentiful. In a pair of new studies, CABBI researchers led by Director Andrew Leakey used genetic engineering to advance improvement of WUE in climate-friendly C4 #bioenergy crops without sacrificing yield - a significant advance for development of a sustainable #bioeconomy. They also discovered a plant mechanism that represents a valuable new target for engineering even more efficient crops, work led by Research Scientist Daniel Tejeda Lunn, Ph.D. Together, these findings will help maximize bioenergy feedstock production, aid crops in mitigating the effects of inadequate water supply, and open up new avenues of plant research! #sorghum #sugarcane #miscanthus Other major contributors included Tom Clemente, Fredy Altpeter and John Ferguson, former Postdoctoral Researcher at Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. ➡ News release: https://lnkd.in/gjhy7-Dy ➡ Publications in the Journal of Experimental Botany: https://lnkd.in/gubTsh2i https://lnkd.in/g5P4ZsJn School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois | University of Illinois College of ACES | Nebraska Research | University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences | Truyen Quach | Zhengxiang Ge | Tieling Zhang | Natalya nersesian | Shirley Sato | Baskaran Kannan | Amandine Germon | Alistair Leverett

Great to see our CABBI alums moving on to exciting new careers! Congratulations Dalton W. Stewart, Ph.D., E.I.T. and thanks for your impactful CABBI Sustainability research!

More from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) on work led by CABBI's Amy Marshall-Colón, Kankshita Swaminathan and Jie Fu, who created a valuable resource for understanding the inner workings of bioenergy #sorghum plant cells. Here's the CABBI news release: https://lnkd.in/gzgUMBAH

This story highlights how research at Illinois has a direct impact on the student experience. The undergraduate student who's featured, Jack Mason, has had some excellent research opportunities that he's translated into impressive, impact-driven work. Andrew Leakey, Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois College of ACES, The Grainger College of Engineering https://lnkd.in/gGkq9mme

CABBI undergrad Jack Mason took home the top award in the ASPB African Researchers Network #hackathon challenge at the 2024 American Society of Plant Biologists conference. The event challenged teams to design a computational framework to fast-track a breeding pipeline for enhanced flavor in a fruit or vegetable of their choosing. Mason's team used cutting-edge AI models to enhance flavor in tomatoes. The award represents a win for cross-campus collaboration in student training at the intersection of computer science, plant science, and clean energy. Mason is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Crop Sciences — a program jointly hosted by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and the The Grainger College of Engineering. Within CABBI, where he works with Andrew Leakey's research group, Mason is applying convolutional neural networks — a form of machine learning — to do image analysis that allows the field performance of emerging #bioenergy crops to be quickly evaluated by drones. This work accelerates the of dedicated biomass crops that can be used as the foundation of a sustainable #bioeconomy! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gKEBHJ6b Siebel School of Computing and Data Science | School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois | Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology | Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois

This study by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) identified the best bioenergy crops for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) for each U.S. region. The work by Madhu Khanna, Jeremy Guest, DoKyoung "DK" Lee and their colleagues will help growers and policymakers choose the most suitable feedstocks to lower production costs and GHG emissions! Paper: https://lnkd.in/g_F6jj3a University of Illinois College of ACES | Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois | The Grainger College of Engineering | Rui Shi