Applied biotechnology is an area of science with immense growth due to the emerging need for bio-products produced using renewable resources which are therefore sustainable, leading to a strong bio-economy. Bio-products include biofuels, biopolymers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, food and textiles. 

The Applied Biotechnology Research Group (ABRG) aims towards the exploitation of biological resources for the production and development of a range of bio-products and their use for environmental, medical and chemical/biochemical applications. 

This research group has international repute in several areas including: biopolymer production, biomaterials, scaling up of bioprocesses, bioprocess optimisation, antibiotic production, microbial electrochemical technologies, enzyme technology, biofuels, small molecule production including chiral compounds, antibacterial products of natural origin, antibacterial materials, exploitation of plant and algal resources, plant structure, quorum sensing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, marine biology and astrobiology. 

ABRG thus covers a range of priority areas that humanity needs to solve in the 21st century, including:

  • Clean water and sanitation: These are being addressed by developing microbial fuel cells as standalone systems or integrated with other systems for sustainable wastewater management, including resource recovery. Contact: Dr Godfrey Kyazze.
  • Affordable and clean energy: Research is ongoing on the generation of biofuels from sustainable resources. Examples of biofuels we work on are: second generation bioethanol, biohydrogen and biomethane. Contacts: Dr Godfrey Kyazze, Dr Namdar Bhaghaei-Yazdi and Dr Muhammad Javed.
  • Enhancing bioproduct yields in fermenters using quorum sensing and bioprocess engineering approaches. Example products are lovastatin, green dyes like bioindigo and biodegradable plastics. Contacts: Professor Taj Keshavarz and Dr Godfrey Kyazze.
  • Bioremediation of contaminants from the environment. Currently we are working on plastic degradation and cleaning up petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites using microbial electrochemistry approaches. Contacts: Dr Godfrey Kyazze and Prof Taj Keshavarz
  • Astrobiology. Contact: Professor Lewis Dartnell
  • Marine biotoxins. Contact: Dr Linda Percy
  • Food safety and security. Contact: Dr Stuart Thompson.