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Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic & Systems Biology Laboratory

    News & Updates

  • Ramon Gonzalez - CNN

    • Ramon Gonzalez, the William W. Akers Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, discusses with CNN how his Research Group is cleanly converting problematic biofuels waste into chemicals that fetch a profit.


  • Turning a Glycerin Glut Into Ethanol Helps Biofuel Industry

  • The technology uses E. coli bacteria to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process. Using this technology will significantly cut production costs and could solve one of the biggest problems facing the biodiesel industry.



  • Research Reveals New Biofuels Link
  • Crude glycerin is a low-value byproduct of the growing biodiesel industry. Dr. Gonzalez Research Group has identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of Escherichia coli to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process.


  • Gonzalez receives CAREER award
  • Dr. Gonzalez receives prestigious Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation

  • >  More news updates

Ramon Gonzalez


Ramon Gonzalez

William W. Akers Assistant Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
Assistant Professor in Bioengineering
Rice University

 


Contact Information:

 

Phone:
(713) 348-4893

Fax:
(713) 348-5478

Office:

Abercrombie Lab, B232

 

Lab:

Abercrombie Lab, B144

 

Mail:

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
MS-362
P.O. Box 1892
Rice University
Houston, TX 77251-1892

 

 

E-mail:
Ramon.Gonzalez@rice.edu

The long-term goal of our research is the development of biological platforms for the production of chemicals and fuels from renewable sources. To this end, we use a wide spectrum of approaches and state-of-the-art techniques typically viewed under different disciplines such as Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Biochemistry, and Molecular & Cellular Biology.

Our research embraces three general areas: Metabolic Engineering, Functional Genomics and Systems Biology, and Microbial and Cell Cultures.

We are currently focusing our efforts in the following projects: Understanding the Microbial Utilization of Glycerol under Fermentative Conditions, Metabolism of 5- and 6-C Sugar Mixtures in E. coli, Microbial Platforms for the Production of Chemicals and Fuels from Glycerol, and Fermentative Metabolism of Pyruvate.