Matthew Posewitz

Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry

The Colorado School of Mines

“Photons to Fuels: Metabolic Pathway Manipulation for Starch, Oils or Hydrogen in Photosynthetic Microorganisms” 

Co-hosts: Linnel Macklin, Chris Lavery and Caitlin Young

Photosynthetic microorganisms (PSMs) have the potential to produce vast amounts of different forms of renewable energy as biofuels. Recent research efforts have focused on manipulating biosynthetic pathways leading to starch, triacylglycerols, fatty acid secretion, isoprenes or hydrogen gas.  Using PSMs could be a viable alternative to typical fossil fuels used in modern society because they are much closer to being carbon neutral, which minimizes the political effects associated with most other alternative fuels. By manipulating various genes, such as the starch biosynthetic genes, Matt and his fellow scientists have been able to produce desired results such as increased starch production. However, manipulating some genes can have adverse effects on production in other portions of the cells. Three main areas make up research in this field, these include Carbon Concentration or Trapping, improving efficiencies in Light Absorption, and partitioning the fuel into the desired products. Each of these fields is important to eventually increase the efficiency of producing biofuels from less than 1% to its maximum potential of 12.5 %.

Matthew Posewitz is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He received a BA degree in Chemistry from Willamette University and a PhD in Chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1995. Before he joined the faculty of the Colorado School of Mines he was a Postdoctoral Research scientist at the University of Utah. He also was a research associate at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He now focuses on understanding the central metabolism of organisms in hopes of using that knowledge and applying it to bioenergy technologies.