Creating pathways to more efficient biofuels production is a major undertaking at CBIS. The ability to efficiently synthesize proteins has major implications for medicine and energy. CBIS’s Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering Robert Linhardt, made international headlines in 2008 with his method for producing the first fully synthetic form of the anticoagulant heparin.

Recently, Mattheas Koffas, Career Development Associate Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering Constellation, published a technique to more efficiently produce large quantities of the fatty acids that form the basis of compounds used in biofuels, medicine, and commodity chemical production.