Drawing on the tools and techniques of molecular biology, researchers in UCSD’s Division of Biological Sciences have made fundamental discoveries about the genetic code. These advances in understanding the human genome have led to the development of new pharmaceuticals and other treatments to improve human health. Now these same molecular biology tools and techniques are being applied to energy and environmental problems.
Plant geneticists and other molecular biologists at UCSD are seeking novel
ways to convert plants into biofuels that are less polluting than today’s
fossil fuels. Brazil has weaned itself from imported oil by converting its sugar
crops into ethanol-based fuels. Biofuel development is a bigger challenge in
the United States, where corn and cellulose-based crops predominate. Converting
cellulose to ethanol is a more difficult and less cost-effective process than
using sugar.
UCSD biologists, in collaboration with those at other institutions, are deciphering the genetic instructions that allow plants to form and break down their rigid cell walls. The search is on for genes within the plant genome that degrade cellulose more easily into sugars. University biologists are also studying the possibility of growing bio-engineered algae in otherwise inhospitable landscapes, in order to preserve arable land for growing crops and other plants that could produce biofuels.