CBE professor Hyeongmin Seo was awarded $1.5M to contribute to the Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Photo of Hyeongmin Seo

A University of Iowa assistant professor of chemical and biochemical engineering investigating how to convert waste into materials for high quality products will be part of the new Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts, which was recently awarded funding through the Global Centers competition.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and international partners recently announced an $82 million investment to launch six global centers focused on developing a bioeconomy.

The Global Center for Sustainable Bioproduct was awarded $5 million to study how to turn organic waste into renewable and biodegradable plastics for use in important, high-quality products, such as environmental sensors.

Hyeongmin Seo, who joined the College of Engineering this year, will leverage his expertise in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and systems biology in bringing $1.5 million to fund his research at Iowa. 

Arthur J. Ragauskas, a professor at the University of Tennessee, is the principal investigator of the project. The research team also includes researchers from other U.S. universities, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Canada, with help from collaborators in Finland and Japan. 

By understanding the chemistry of biomass, or organic waste such as scraps of wood or agricultural residue, researchers believe they can remove impediments to productivity in converting waste into polyhydroxyalkanoate, a type of bioplastic produced by microorganisms or microscopic life forms. 

The resulting bioplastic can then be incorporated into composites for 3D and 4D printing. A longer-term hope is to expand biorefining across the globe. 

Seo’s role is to design high-performing microorganisms, build them by modifying their genes to support high value products, test effectiveness, and learn from the results to make improvements. 

The NSF has partnered with other agencies in the U.S., Canada, Finland, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the United Kingdom, for the Global Centers investment.

The 2024 Global Centers awards focus on advancing bioeconomy research to solve global challenges, whether by increasing crop resilience, converting plant matter or other biomass into fuel, or paving the way for biofoundries to scale-up applications of biotechnology for societal benefit.