New yeast strain produces ethanol more efficiently

Illinois food science and human nutrition professor Yong-Su Jin (center), postdoctoral researcher Suk-Jin Ha (left), graduate student Soo Rin Kim and their colleagues engineered a yeast that outperforms the industry standard in the production of ethanol from cellulosic biomass. The effort involved researchers at Illinois, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, Seoul National University and the oil company BP. Photo credit: L. Brian Stauffer, U. of I. News Bureau