Keasling wins George Washington Carver Award

April 18, 2103 –
Bioengineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Professor Jay Keasling has been awarded the 2013 George Washington Carver Award for innovation in industrial biotechnology. The award is presented annually by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

Keasling was honored for his contributions to the field of synthetic biology promoting the use of engineering microbes to produce biofuels, medicines and even cosmetic compounds from simple ingredients like sugar cane and grasses. This technique recently resulted in large-scale production of anti-malarial drug artemisinin from engineered yeast.