SBE's James E. Bailey Award

This award is sponsored by the Society for Biological Engineering.

The Society for Biological Engineering's Bailey award recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of biological engineering. In memory of Professor James Bailey for his many pioneering contributions to biotechnology, this award is presented to an individual who has had an important impact on biological engineering and whose achievements have advanced the profession.

James Bailey's educational legacy touched many modern biochemical and biological engineers in the profession today. The award is presented to an individual who embodies the spirit of James Bailey, one that is a pioneer, a mentor, an innovator, an integrator of biology and engineering, a teacher, and whose achievements have provided a major impact to the field of biological engineering.

We are pleased to announce Gregory Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is the recipient of the 2023 James E. Bailey Award.

Can biotechnology deliver cost effective fuels with reduced carbon footprint?

Gregory Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The importance of liquid fuels in transportation is well established, yet, there are presently no viable options for their cost-effective production from renewable feedstocks.  During the past 15 years we have been developing in my lab a system for the conversion of gas mixtures of hydrogen (or CO) and CO2 to oils. The system comprises anaerobic fixation of CO2 and conversion of the CO2 fixation product (for example, acetate) to lipids, from which biodiesel, green diesel or Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) can be produced. In another application, the CO2 fixation product is converted to alkanes. Our work includes both the engineering of the microbes and development of a process to achieve gas to liquid conversion in prototype systems. These systems are scalable, make no use of land (beyond what is needed for generating renewable electricity for hydrogen production), do not compete with food and are cost competitive based on high level and TEA based cost analysis. I will present the essential features of this process in my talk; full details can be found in 5 papers cited below. 

Just 5 selected references

1.    Peng Hu, et al., “Integrated system for biological conversion of gaseous substrates to lipids,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201516867; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516867113 (2016).

2.    Jingyang Xu, et al., “Application of metabolic controls for maximization of lipid production in oleaginous yeast,” Proceed. of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(27): E5308-E5316; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1703321114 (2017).

3.    K.J. Qiao, et al., “Rewiring metabolism to maximize lipid production in Yarrowia lipolytica,” Nature Biotechnology, 35: 173-177; DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3763 (2017).

4.    J.O. Park, et al, “Synergistic substrate co-feeding stimulates reductive metabolism,” Nature Metabolism, 1(6): 643–651; DOI: 10.1038/s42255-019-0077-0 (2019).

5.    Li, Jingbo, et al., “Synthesis of High-Titer Alka(e)Nes in Yarrowia Lipolytica Is Enabled by a Discovered Mechanism.” Nature Communications, 11(1): 1-13.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19995-0 (2020).

Selected for Editors’ Highlights: www.nature.com/collections/idhhgedgigand.