Abstract
Dear Colleagues,
This issue of Industrial Biotechnology (IB) continues our tradition of helping our readers understand the global drivers that catalyze biotechnological innovation, while at the same time providing a focused and in-depth understanding of scientific and technological developments. An example of one of these global drivers is the link between energy and national security that is so thoughtfully laid out in an interview with Mr. Thomas Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy. The US Navy's commitment to expanding domestic production of high-performance biofuels through market pull has gained considerable national and international attention. We are excited to have had this opportunity to engage Mr. Hicks in a thoughtful and engaging dialogue on the opportunities and challenges of developing the market for advanced biofuels and the important role of biotechnology innovation in ensuring our country's energy and national security.
Expanding the feedstock supply chain is an important part of our national effort to build a cost-effective and sustainable advanced biofuel supply. However, the genetic diversity and physical/chemical variability of biomass feedstocks must be managed as part of an integrated approach to developing and deploying advanced biofuels. This requires more in-depth knowledge of the chemical and physical structure of biomass feedstocks. This issue of IB features a special section focused on methods for characterizing biomass feedstocks. Our Editorial Board colleague, Dr. Brian Davison, Chief Scientist for Systems Biology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has organized an “IN DEPTH” feature on characterizing biomass. Brian invited a number of scientists and engineers to contribute peer-reviewed manuscripts for this special issue of IB, and my Co-Editor-in-Chief, Glenn Nedwin and I are thankful for Brian's leadership in bringing this issue to our readers. In the future, there will be other IB special issues that will focus in depth on important areas of scientific discovery and technology innovation, including nanobiotechnology, systems biology, and fungal biotechnology. These special issues are an important facet of our ongoing effort to keep our readers current on the science and technologies that are core to our missions.
With this issue we also provide the second installment of the new Catalyzing Innovation feature. Innovation is a human activity that requires a supportive and stimulating environment for critical thinking and experimentation; whether it be the White House National Bioeconomy Blueprint, Jon Gertner's book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2012), or dedicated centers of innovation, there is growing interest in how we create dynamic and effective “innovation ecologies.” In this issue, we hear from two groups that are actively involved in building and maintaining ecologies to catalyze biotechnology innovation. The first group is an international collaboration between colleagues from the US and Canada that describes the innovation ecology being developed by Data-Enabled Life Sciences Alliance (DELSA) Global. The need to develop an ecosystem and tools for managing and extracting insights from the enormous and complex data sets being generated by genomics and systems biology is creating many innovation opportunities and challenges. Chief among these challenges is to “facilitate the progress from data-to-action” for scientists, technologists, and other stakeholders. The second Catalyzing Innovation feature highlights another international collaboration from our colleagues at Novozymes and DSM. It focuses on the development and deployment of proteases for the livestock feed industry—and includes a strong link to agricultural biotechnology. There are a number of potential sources of proteases, and the screening, evaluation, and development of these important industrial enzymes are an exciting and challenging innovation effort being undertaken by groups that have a long history of biotechnology innovation.
Our goal at IB is to help our readers better negotiate the shifting landscape of biotechnology innovation. As in any journey, the trip itself is just as exciting as reaching the destination!