Overview
The Center for Environmental Biotechnology focuses on developing microbiological systems that capture or develop renewable resources and also prevent or clean up environmental pollution. Our team combines engineering approaches with microbiology and chemistry to reclaim polluted water and generate energy from waste substances. Center researchers combine engineering with microbiology, molecular biology, and chemistry in order to gain an integrated understanding of how microbial ecosystems work and can be controlled to reclaim polluted water, generate energy from waste substances, and improve the public health and sustainability.
Microorganisms, as part of their normal life, do things that provide services to society and improve environmental quality. They biodegrade contaminants that pollute water, air or soil. They transform waste materials into valuable renewable resources. All of this they do in natural communities of different types of microorganisms living and working together. The microorganisms, the communities, and the services are the subjects for the Center for Environmental Biotechnology.
The Center contains approximately 7,500 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art laboratories, computing facilities, and offices. The Center performs research that ranges from fundamentals of biochemistry, genomics, and microbial ecology to field testing of technologies it develops. The Center’s strategy is to integrate basic science with engineering and fundamentals with applications in all aspects of its research.
The first step toward success within the Center for Environmental Biotechnology is being able to “think like the microorganisms,” which means performing scientific research to understand what the microorganisms do and what constitutes a good environment in which they can do it. “Thinking like the microorganisms” demands a deep understanding of the microbial communities. Fortunately, we have powerful new tools to help us analyze these intriguing organisms.
Among the tools we can use are molecular methods that probe the genetic information of the microorganisms in the community. By targeting different types of DNA or RNA, these tools can identify which microorganisms are present, what reactions they can perform, what reactions they are performing, and which physical and metabolic interactions are occurring.
We know that microbial communities profoundly alter their environment by carrying out chemical reactions. Chemical tools measure the effects of microbial activity. Using these tools, we are able to understand how the microorganisms process chemicals to gain energy and grow (their biochemistry) and how those reactions alter the geochemical conditions of the environment in which the microbial community lives and works.
Another set of tools includes mathematical models that systematically and quantitatively represent the community members, their reactions, and how they affect each other and their environment. Modeling uses computers, and it is a tool for integrating different types of knowledge. When we integrate information from all the tools, we gain a deep understanding of the biological and chemical activity in microbial communities.
The second step toward success is designing technologies that “work for the microorganisms so that they work for us.” The environmental biotechnologist provides conditions so that the “right” microorganisms – the ones that perform the right services – thrive and stay within the community. This is the natural, ecologically based recipe for success with environmental biotechnologies.
