News
10.30.2025 -
The Dreyfus Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of 16 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Supplemental Grant recipients for 2025.
08.29.2024 -
A six-year, $22 million National Science Foundation grant to establish the first “biofoundry"
03.30.2023 -
A Biofuel Breakthrough in Anaerobic Fungi with Michelle O'Malley and Tom Lankiewicz
03.09.2023 -
New evidence shows anaerobic fungi can degrade the hardiest of plant components
07.13.2021 -
Chemical engineer Michelle O’Malley again recognized for her highly innovative research
06.24.2021 -
Michelle O’Malley’s lab group discovers that anaerobic fungi in the guts of herbivores that produce the unique building blocks of antibiotics
05.31.2021 -
Scott, Lawton and Rylie from ChemTalk talk to Dr. Michelle O'Malley about her research on biomaterials, her education, chemistry and what it's like to be a professor at the university of Santa Barbara.
04.28.2021 -
Fungi from herbivore poop make surprisingly complex compounds — an energetically expensive feat thought to be too costly for them.
02.01.2021 -
From biofuels and other commodity chemicals to methane production, genomic study peers into the mysteries of a goat’s gut
12.25.2020 -
In Michelle O’Malley’s lab, a simple approach suggests a big leap forward in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
10.02.2019 -
Residents of herbivore bellies could make agricultural leftovers into valuable chemicals
09.10.2019 -
Engineering professor Michelle O'Malley receives DOE award to image microbial processes that could lead to advanced biofuels
10.09.2018 -
Cows and other large herbivores that evolved to graze on grasses and other woody forage have the ability to “unlock” the energy contained in plant cellulose and convert it to sugar. By understanding and cultivating the microbes that these animals have in their digestive systems, similar processes could be used to create fuels and chemicals from agricultural waste rather than from fossil fuels.
03.23.2018 -
In this segment, she talks with Ira about the bacterial and fungal communities within poop, and how microbes, just like people, form unique bonds with each other—becoming friends, enemies, and even “frenemies.”
01.15.2018 -
The many recent discoveries thanks to the scientists who put up with a bunch of crap.
06.04.2017 -
“There are protein complexes in bacteria called cellulosomes that pack together the enzymes to break down plant biomass. The idea is that these clusters are better at attacking biomass because they are keeping the different enzymes in place with plugs called dockerins so they work more efficiently. This has been detailed in bacteria for more than 20 years, but now seen for the first time in fungi.”
05.30.2017 -
"I’m very proud of the fact that our research tries to balance efforts in discovery and engineering. And working on unusual microbes offers a route to do that.”
05.11.2016 -
PECASE recipient discovers gut enzymes that break woody plants into biofuel building blocks.
02.26.2016 -
It turns out that the same fungi that live in the guts of goats, horses and sheep create the very enzymes we need to degrade the crude plant material necessary to produce the billions of barrels of biofuels we need to replace gasoline and diesel as our fuel for cars and trucks.
02.23.2016 -
Fungi from the guts of animals such as goats, sheep and horses could transform renewable energy, according to the latest research.
02.19.2016 -
"Nature has engineered these fungi to have what seems to be the world's largest repertoire of enzymes that break down biomass."
02.19.2016 -
The legendary abilities of goats and sheep to digest a wide range of inedible materials could help scientists produce cheaper biofuels.
02.19.2016 -
Anaerobic gut fungi perform as well as the best fungi engineered by industry in their ability to convert plant material into sugars that are easily transformed into fuel and other products, report scientists.
08.10.2015 -
Synthetic Biology: Putting a synthetic quorum-sensing system into gram-positive bacteria could help improve industrial enzyme production
06.29.2015 -
New microbes and new techniques show promise for advanced biofuels, but the industry is still years away from real progress.
09.24.2014 -
But today's blog illustrates that the ubiquitous chemical engineer operates even in the equine world - a chemical engineer has found fungi in the intestinal tracts and faeces of horses which could help produce biofuels from non-food plants.
04.30.2013 -
The use of germs to produce biofuels has been in exploration since the mid-1990s, but finding the right organisms is a difficult task. The horse rumen has a vast array of environmental bacteria and ...something else. Could this be the treasure trove scientists are looking for?
04.16.2013 -
A fungus that grows on manure and breaks down the leftover plant material could be a key clue for biofuel researchers
04.11.2013 -
Stepping into unexplored territory in efforts to use corn stalks, grass and other non-food plants to make biofuels, scientists today described the discovery of a potential treasure-trove of candidate enzymes in fungi thriving in the feces and intestinal tracts of horses.
04.11.2013 -
Michelle O’Malley knows good horse poop when she sees it. While at MIT, the chemical engineer scooped up some manure from Finn, a grass-fed horse at a sustainable farm in Concord, Mass.