Profile: Jay Keasling
A synthetic biologist's Nebraska farm roots are serving him well in his search for new, clean-burning biofuels. Aired February 23, 2011 on PBS
- Posted 02.23.11
- NOVA scienceNOW
Program Description
Jay Keasling grew up isolated from the world of science on his family's farm in Nebraska. But perseverance, a love of the outdoors, and a passion for engineering all helped him become a pioneer in the cutting-edge field of synthetic biology. Now he's developing "designer" microbes -- synthesizing a key anti-malaria drug at a fraction of the current cost, and hoping to create new microbes that produce clean-burning fuels.
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0917517. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
NOVA scienceNOW is a trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation
NOVA scienceNOW is produced for WGBH/Boston by NOVA
© 2011 WGBH Educational Foundation
All rights reserved
Image:
- Image credit: (Jay Keasling)
- © WGBH Educational Foundation
Participants
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History
- Max Keasling
- Jay’s father
- Blake Simmons
- Joint BioEnergy Institute
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