On June 5, Michael W. W. Adams guested at the “Inspiring Wisdom” Distinguished Lectures. He delivered a wonderful speech under the title "Exploiting microbial hyperthermophilicity to produce an industrial chemical using hydrogen and carbon dioxide".

Hyperthermophiles are microorganisms that grow near and above 100°C, the normal boiling point of water. Advantages of using them for high temperature bioprocessing include low risks of contamination, no cooling, high rates of mixing, and volatile products might be directly distilled to minimize microbial toxicity. We are using these high temperature microorganisms to produce fuels and chemicals by two different strategies. In the first we are degrading plant biomass to produce ethanol as the primary end product. The model plant biomass is switchgrass and the model microorganisms are species of Caldicellulosiruptor. These have been shown to directly deconstruct switchgrass biomass without any thermochemical pretreatment step to release soluble sugars. In the second approach we are incorporating carbon dioxide into useful products using hydrogen gas as the source of energy. We are utilizing a temperature-dependent approach to engineer the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus, which grows optimally at 100°C, using genes from microorganisms that grow optimally near 70°C. At the lower temperature P. furiosus has minimal interference with the synthetic metabolic pathway and gene expression can be controlled in a temperature-dependent fashion without the need for chemical inducers. As an example, an engineered P. furiosus strain was able to incorporate carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionate, a major industrial chemical building block, at 75°C but not at 100°C. In addition, P. furiosus has been successfully engineered P. furiosus to use formate and carbon monoxide as energy sources, and to convert glucose to butanol and glucose to ethanol by novel synthetic pathways. The properties of the various microbial strains will be discussed together with their current limitations.  This research was supported by the US Department of Energy.

Prof. Michael ADAMS is a famous scientist in the field of microbial metabolism and extremophiles. He is a distinguished research professor in Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at University of Georgia. He was elected a Fellowship of American Academy of Microbiology in 2003. He was also awarded by the Lifetime Achievement Award from International Society of Extremophiles in 2014, and the Charles Thom Award in 2010.

Further, his research is focused on the unique physiological adaptability, hydrogen-producing mechanism and enzymology of Pyrococcus furious, which is a marine hyperthermophilic microorganisms with potential application in industries.. Prof. Michael ADAMS has published more than 360 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, including the top and well known scientific journals, such as Science, Nature, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A..

Professor ADAMS will present his team’s scientific research progress on synthetic biology of hyperthermophilic microorganisms during the past five years. He will talk about the potential application of these microbes in solving environmental issues and providing new bio-energy by developing the marine extremophiles.