Abstract
Dear Colleagues:
At the heart of our global innovation engine are groups of gifted and talented men and women who are committed to challenging the status quo to say we can do things better and act on this belief. This may be an individual scientist who challenges a prevailing paradigm, or a group of commercial developers who believes in an innovative business model to capture new markets or a large share of the current market. It is these men and women who work through science, technology, social and business trends, and government policy to find unique opportunities for innovation and seize on them. In this issue of IB, as in all of our issues, we celebrate these innovators and their impact on our community.
It was particularly rewarding for me and my IB colleagues to be present at BIO's Pacific Rim Summit meeting to celebrate the granting of the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award to Dr. Debbie S. Yaver, Director, Expression Technology, Genomics and Bioinformatics, Novozymes, Davis, CA. Dr. Yaver is the first recipient of this award because of her exemplar service to our community and in recognition of the many contributions that women have made to industrial biotechnology. We at IB are particularly excited about this award because the CEO of our publishing house, Mary Ann Liebert, founded the Rosalind Franklin Society (RFS,
In our interview with Dr. Yaver, we get an honest and objective assessment of how women are participating in science in general and industrial biotechnology in particular. I echo her sentiment that there has been significant change in the level of women participating in science and engineering, as was reflected in the list of outstanding nominees for the award that can be reviewed on the BIO web site. However, there is still plenty of work to be done to increase the level of participation of women and under-represented minorities in the STEM fields and in our community. Active engagement is another key message that one can take home from our interview with Dr. Yaver. As you read through the interview you see a colleague who is passionate about her science and the opportunities to deploy her science for the greater good. She embraced Novozymes' credo of “Rethink Tomorrow,” and this is exactly what we would expect from a leader in our innovation space. We at IB extend whole-hearted congratulations to Dr. Yaver for being the first recipient of this prestigious award.
Providing opportunities for the gifted younger members of our community to share their research and innovation perspective is important for sustaining a vibrant and productive innovation ecology. In this issue of IB we are fortunate to have two young researchers, Jose Moran-Mirabal, PhD and Emily Cranston, PhD, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, serve as guest editors of the special IB IN DEPTH section. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Dr. Moran-Mirabal in using advanced imaging methods to elucidate cellulase molecular mechanisms during his postdoctoral studies at Cornell University. Thus, it is particularly rewarding to see him take a leadership role on a research topic that is very important for our community. Drs. Moran-Mirabal and Cranston have pulled together an international group of authors to tell a very exciting story about cellulose nanotechnology that spans physical chemical fundamentals (see article by Dr. Maren Roman) to exciting application areas such as free radical grafting on cellulose nanocrystals (Lacroix et al). There are tremendous opportunities to deploy cellulose nanocrystals for a spectrum of industrial biotechnology developments.
Algae biotechnology continues to be a strategic research area for the industrial biotechnology community, and in this issue of IB we get an “Algal Progress Report” from Dr. Valerie Reed, Deputy Director of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC. Dr. Reed has provided us with a very concise and thoughtful assessment of algal biotechnology and what needs to be done to meet a very challenging goal of producing 5 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2030. Reducing overall production costs is essential for meeting this objective. Hopefully the current energy situation will not undermine the need for research and development to meet this goal and to develop the workforce to support algal biotechnology commercial development. Like many other promising technologies, we need to inspire our young women and men to take on this challenge as part of the global effort to “Rethink Tomorrow.”
Our Catalyzing Innovation feature is provided by Stefan Krawielitzki and Thomas M. Kläusli, AVA Biochem, Muttenz, Switzerland. Our Swiss colleagues bring us good news about expanding opportunities to deploy green chemistry for industrial biotechnology development. The focus of their good news story is the opportunity to derive from renewable feedstock important green chemicals such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF). AVA Biochem has created a modified hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process to convert fructose to 5-HMF. The authors lay out a systematic approach of extracting fructose from sugar cane by introducing their 5-HMF process into a biorefinery that consists of a sugar mill, distillery, and power plant to produce multiple products. One of the key products that is expected from this integration effort is polyethylene furanoate (PEF) for the biobased package and bottle sector. As with all of the Catalyzing Innovation features in IB, the authors tell a comprehensive story about how novel technology can be deployed when resources, market, and policy are aligned.
Innovation is people inspired! For us to develop fully the potential of the global bioeconomy we must unleash the diverse imagination and commitment of a broad spectrum of professionals. We need more leaders such as Debbie Yaver, Jose Moran-Mirabal, and Emily Cranston to help us drive industrial biotechnology innovation.