Q&A with Paige Novak

Gateway, September 21, 2015

Q. FIRST OFF, WHAT IS THE CREATORS WORKSHOP?

A. It’s a three-part workshop geared toward supporting women in the STEM fields who want to see their research make a difference in the world. In this case, by providing access to tools and resources related to patents, licensing, and technology commercialization. The University has great resources in the area, and we’d like to help more women investigators take advantage these tools.

Read the full interview in Gateway

Seed Grant Recipients Announced

MnDRIVE, Advancing Industry, Conserving Our Environment, awarded five Postdoc/Graduate fellowships and five undergraduate grants in the first round of its 2015-2016 Seed Grant program. A second round of funding was announced for the fall of 2015.

Post-Doctorate Fellowships

Dr. Sebastian Behrens received a grant for his research into engineered biochars for sulfate removal from mining waters.

Dr. Jonathan Shilling was awarded a grant to research the use of process modeling and design strategies to diversify industrial applications for fugal-augmented bioreactors.

Graduate Fellowships

Dr. Alpetkin Aksan was awarded a fellowship to engineer a silica microencapsulation system to expedite the breakdown of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a common class of pollutants in Minnesota.

Dr. Tim Griffis was awarded a fellowship to identify constructed wetland nitrogen processing nodes within headwater stream networks.

Dr. Bo Hu was awarded a fellowship to research bioremediation processes for water and nutrient recycling to improve biomass recovery and nutrient content in animal feed.

Undergraduate Fellowships

Dr. Mikael Elias for his proposal to study the molecular mechanism of bacterial phosphate uptake for the development of innovative phosphate removal methods.

Dr. Satoshi Ishii for research on algal granule bioreactors for Nitrogen and Phosphate bioremediation.

Dr. Guy Sander for his proposal to examine the fate of pharmaceutical micropollutants in wastewater treatment plants and strategies to reduce their release into the environment.

A Tiny Solution to a Big Water Problem

Gateway, June 30, 2015

It may not be homecoming season, but for Satoshi Ishii, a new faculty member in BTI and CFANS, the position marks a return to his graduate alma mater.

Ishii, who received his doctorate in Soil Science from the U of M in 2007, cited the quality of the faculty and the wealth of available resources as reasons he was excited to accept a MnDRIVE: Environment faculty position in water quality and bioremediation. Most recently, he was an assistant professor at Hokkaido University in his native Japan.

A tiny solution to a big water problem

2015 MnDRIVE Environment Symposium

Gateway, May 1, 2015

By Sarah Perdue

Minnesota’s future is looking brighter thanks to the work of the innovative researchers who presented at the annual MnDRIVE: Advancing Industry, Conserving Our Environment Symposium (MnDRIVE: Environment). The event, which included presentations by MnDRIVE-funded grad students, postdocs and faculty, was held on February 25, 2015 on the University’s Saint Paul campus, and drew attendees from the University, state government agencies, and local biotech companies.

2015 MnDRIVE Environment Symposium

Biomining

Gateway, March 6, 2015

BY Sarah Perdue

In mining, it seems, there’s a tradeoff: the benefit of harvesting high value commodity resources versus the liability of polluting valuable water and soil resources downstream. In recent years, mining companies have become increasingly interested in microbiological approaches to improving yields and reducing the toxicity of mining waste.

Biomining

Engineering of Silica Micro-Bioreactors for Biodegradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Alptekin Aksan and his team are studying Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are a common and problematic class of pollutants in the US and in Minnesota. Furthermore, the increased railroad traffic through the state carrying the Bakken crude increases the chances for spills. This research will focus on Pseudomonas sp. NCIB 9816-4, a model organism, which has been extensively studied and has been shown to metabolize more than 100 aromatic hydrocarbons. Our data have shown that if proliferation is inhibited, the encapsulated cell activity is limited to two weeks. We intend to increase that by encapsulating cells in a growth-inducing gel initially by encapsulating them in an alginate gel and then re-encapsulating them in a silica gel to protect them from the environmental challenges.

Read about Dr. Aksan’s work on bioremediation and related research.

Learn more!