Dr. James Umen, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

A couple months ago, The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center brought on an addition to their Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels, Dr. James Umen. He was kind enough to take some time to talk about his research and how it will influence the algae industry.

1) What is your background with algae?

I was trained as yeast geneticist for my PhD work, and then decided to work on the single celled alga Chlamydomonas for my postdoctoral training. I was drawn into algae by my interest in organelle genetics and continue to work on algae because of the interesting scientific questions that can be addressed with them.

2) Why have you decided to focus on photosynthesis with your research?

Working on algae does not necessarily entail working directly on photosynthesis. There are many aspects of algal biology that need to be understood and which can be informative for different scientific questions and practical applications. I decided a few years ago to investigate how the products of photosynthesis drive cell growth in algae, and whether photosynthetic growth is fundamentally different from growth of algae that is driven by external carbon. These questions end up having direct implications for lipid metabolism and biofuel, so are very topical.

3) What do you hope to discover with your photosynthesis research?

We work in three areas that have some overlap. One of those areas is related to photosynthetic cell growth, and we think our results may lead to a better understanding of how algae and other organisms control their carbon metabolism. A second area of interest is in cell size control. This is a long-standing problem in cell biology. How do cells know when they are big enough to divide? There are some unique features of the algae we work on that have given us insight into this problem. A third area of interest is in the evolution of biological complexity. For this question we focus on the remarkable transition from unicellular to multicellular organization that has occurred within the group of algae we work on.

4) How do you see your research with photosynthesis benefiting the field of algae research?

We are lacking knowledge about many areas of algal biology, any of which could prove important for developing algal based biofuels. Each of our projects addresses fundamental questions, but also have tie-ins to practical aspects of algae-based biofuels. Our growth control project has led to our identification of strains that can produce lipids under conditions where normal strains would not. Our size control project has led to a means of changing the distribution of biomass in cells that may improve yields of algal-based products. Even our work on multicellularity has opened up the potential for understanding how we might genetically control algal growth metabolism and channel it into the production of other metabolic products.

5) Overall, where do you see the field of algae research? How close is it to commercialization with products like fuel?

This is an exciting time for algal research because so many new ideas are emerging on how to use algae to produce biofuels. Like any emerging area, it is hard to predict what the leading technologies and ideas will be a few years from now. In the next five years we will see increasing numbers of pilot production scale facilities for algal biofuels that will be the testing grounds for commercialization. These facilities will really tell us what are the problems we need to solve for commercialization.

6) What limitations on the research side is holding the algae industry back?

Funding for algal research has until recently been pretty lean. This means that our knowledge base and biotechnology toolkits for algae need to be bolstered in order to harness their full potential. Huge resources are being put into highly focused programs of biofuel commercialization, but in the long run we also need to see investment in basic research that will drive new ideas and provide the foundation needed to make algae sustainable and cost effective as an alternative energy source.

7) How easy is it to apply what you’ve learned from Chlamydomonas and Volvox to other algae species?

This is an interesting question. There are some close relatives such as Chlorella and Dunaliella that are of great commercial interest and where we can probably apply much of what we find in our model organisms, Chlamydomonas and Volvox. One important point that is underappreciated is the staggering diversity of algae, which is really a catchall term for photosynthetic microorganisms. The diversity of algae is as broad as the diversity encompassed by bacteria, fungi, animals and plants put together. Thus, our work only touches on a small, but important, corner of algal biology. There is a great deal of hidden potential in algae, much of which has yet to be realized.

Dr. James Umen
Researcher/Member
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
http://www.DanforthCenter.com

Tags: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, James Umen, Photosynthesis