University of Central Florida Professor Henry Daniell spoke with BioFuels Journal on March 15 about his research to develop low-cost enzymes to produce cellulosic ethanol with specially-modified tobacco leaf enzymes.
Highlights from the Podcast
• Agricultural production of enzymes eliminates expensive fermentation and enzyme purification technology.
• Enzymes could be genetically added to plants such as tobacco and then the leaves would be utilized as the enzyme for fermenting biomass to ethanol.
• Currently there are 40 metric tons of biomass produced per acre with tobacco, a non-food crop. Leaves would be dried and powdered and added to fermentation tank as the enzyme in the process.
• USDA grants are involved in the research which has been ongoing for three years. About $500,000 has been granted to the university involving 15 researchers.
• Commercialization of this enzyme technology is expected within two years.
Biography
Dr. Henry Daniell is a Pegasus Professor and the University Board of Trustee Chair in the College of Medicine, University of Central Florida (UCF).
He is the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Italian Academy of Sciences, 14th American to be elected in the past 230 years.
Recently, he received an American Diabetes Association Award for his outstanding contributions.
He is recognized for pioneering chloroplast genetic engineering as a new platform to produce low cost enzymes for biofuels, vaccines and biopharmaceuticals to eliminate the expensive fermentation based technologies currently in use.
He developed and advanced the concept to create vaccines against biothreat agents such as anthrax and plague and several other infectious diseases identified by the WHO and CDC.
Oral delivery of chloroplast-derived proinsulin facilitated prevention or delay the onset of type 1 diabetes.
His laboratory is a global leader in genomics and has determined the complete chloroplast genome sequences of more than twenty crop plants.
His research has been featured on the cover of several high impact scientific journals, and ranked by Nature Biotechnology among the top ten inventions of this decade and among Biomed Central’s Hot 100 authors in the world.
His research led to the formation of UCF's first biotechnology company for commercial development of his patented technology.
He has more than thirty patents awarded globally and 150 published patents.
His publications have been cited over 3500 times in scientific journals and over 5000 times in the Google Scholar.
His research has been funded by several federal agencies including the NIH and USDA.
He has served as a consultant to the United Nations, several NIH or National Academy of Science panels and senior editor of scientific journals.
His research has been featured often in the public press including Discovery Channel, Voice of America, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC, other global networks, Paul Harvey, Jay Leno, New York Times and Scientific American.
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