Researchers in the Alper Lab have used a combination of metabolic engineering and directed evolution to develop a new, mutant yeast strain that could lead to a more efficient biofuel production process that would make biofuels more economically competitive with conventional fuels. Their findings were published online in the journal Metabolic Engineering in March.
Beyond … Read the rest »
When researchers uncovered a never-before-identified strain of fungi in the Alper Lab in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, they made sure it would always call the 40 Acres home. They decided to give the organism the official name Ustilago Bevomyces, after Bevo, the university’s beloved Longhorn steer mascot.
“We gave it this name to … Read the rest »
Hal Alper, associate professor and Fellow of the Paul D. & Betty Robertson Meek Centennial Professorship, has been selected as the 2015 Mellichamp Lecturer at Purdue University.
The Mellichamp Endowed Lectureship was established in 2013 by Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp to recognize “a distinguished young engineering or scientificresearcher from a university, industry or national … Read the rest »
Leading experts in biomolecular engineering recently attended the 5th International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering (ICBE) at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines near Austin, Texas.
This event was co-chaired by Hal Alper, associate professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin, and Mattheos Koffas, professor from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.… Read the rest »
The department is pleased to announce winners of the fall 2014 Undergraduate Research Poster Competition:
Bijal Patel (Johnston Group)
Turning the Electrocatalytic Activity of Perovskite Oxides through Support Interactions
$100 prize
Bijal’s research focuses on improving the performance of perovskite oxides for electrocatalysis. Perovskite-Carbon composites offer a cheap, earth-abundant alternative to current industry-standard … Read the rest »
Hal Alper, assistant professor and Fellow of the Paul D. and Betty Robertson Meek Centennial Professorship, has been selected by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) to receive the Jay Bailey Young Investigator Award in Metabolic Engineering.
The award recognizes original and creative research accomplishments by a young investigator in the field of … Read the rest »
Hal Alper, assistant professor and Fellow of Paul D. and Betty Robertson Meek Centennial Assistant Professorship in Chemical Engineering, has been selected as a 2014 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences and provides an unrestricted research award … Read the rest »
Assistant professor Hal Alper and his team of students have developed a new source of renewable energy, a biofuel from genetically engineered yeast cells and ordinary table sugar. This yeast produces oils and fats, known as lipids, that can be used in place of petroleum-derived products.
Given that the yeast cells grow on sugars, Alper … Read the rest »
A new study led by Hal Alper, assistant professor and Fellow of the Paul D. & Betty Robertson Meek Centennial Professorship, along with a team of graduate and undergraduate students was recently published on advances in efficient conversion of renewable plant material into fuels and chemicals.
The study, “Rewiring yeast sugar transporter preference … Read the rest »
Senior Anny Pan recently won first place in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology division Poster Session at the 2013 AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Anny’s poster, “Metabolic Engineering of the Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for Itaconic Acid Production,” describes metabolic engineering efforts to produce a monomer, itaconic acid, from sugar using Baker’s yeast.… Read the rest »