Electromicrobial production (EMP) technologies aim to combine renewable electricity, CO2, and engineered microbes to make energy-dense molecules at efficiencies exceeding photosynthesis. CO2 can be el...

A genetically engineered bacterium can rapidly break down one of Earth’s most abundant minerals, opening a promising new pathway for removing CO2 from the atmosphere and recovering critical elements, ...

Scientific Reports - Bioleaching of olivine and enstatite with formation of Mg-oxalate mediated by engineered Gluconobacter oxydans

Researchers develop a new bacterium that can absorb DNA directly from its surroundings and incorporate it into its own genetic code.

Backed by £81m, this programme aims to enhance our climate change response by developing an early warning system for tipping points.

Job #AJO30906, WDR-00055535 Postdoctoral Associate Sustainable Energy and Synthetic Biology, BEE/CALS, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

The Barstow lab at Cornell University is looking for a new postdoc for 2026 and beyond to help us with the next phase of our Microbe-Mineral Atlas project. We plan on going from basic scientific disco...

Biomining uses engineered microbes to harvest critical minerals

Scientific Reports - Cross-species comparison of ultramafic rock bio-accelerated weathering performance

Podcast Episode · The Climate Biotech Podcast · 07/09/2025 · 1h

Explore this photo album by Buz Barstow on Flickr!

Explore this photo album by Buz Barstow on Flickr!

Cornell geochemists and synthetic biologists have collaborated to improve the efficiency of microbes that can dissolve rocks to extract critical minerals while speeding carbon sequestration from air.

Using insights from whole-genome screening, the mineral-dissolving microbe Gluconobacter oxydans was engineered by deleting the pstS gene and overexpressing mgdh, creating a strain that improves rare ...

Genome-scale screening of Gluconobacter oxydans B58 identifies genes and non-acid mechanisms involved in rare earth element bioleaching, providing insights into improving microbial recovery of critica...

Scientific Reports - Bio-accelerated weathering of ultramafic minerals with Gluconobacter oxydans

Lanthanides, key components of sustainable energy technologies, can be separated using microorganisms with selective biosorption capabilities that som…