Sorghum is planted to produce ethanol during the sugarcane off-season

FAPESP – Consumers are never going to notice that in March and April the ethanol found in some fuel pumps at service stations is not the ethanol traditionally produced from sugarcane. The ethanol will have come from sorghum, a plant of the grass family that sugarcane also belongs to. This situation is predicted by researcher André May, from the Corn and Sorghum Unit of Embrapa (the Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research), who is monitoring various experiments related to introducing sorghum into the country’s energy matrix. Since 2007, Embrapa has been working toward developing sorghum crops during the sugarcane off-season. Embrapa plans to launch three new varieties of this grass this year for the production of ethanol.

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Source and Photo: FAPESP, March 2012
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Bio-refineries of the future

By Marcos de Oliveira
FAPESP – The future of ethanol production seems to be more promising than all the forecasts made so far. According to a study by researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), in 20 years’ time it will be possible to supply the whole of the world’s automobile fleet with ethanol and electricity produced in sugarcane mills. “This can be done by using the ethanol and electricity more efficiently, with more economical vehicles,” says Sergio Pacca, a professor from the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities at USP Leste, in São Paulo, who is responsible for the study, along with Professor José Roberto Moreira, from USP’s Institute of Electronics and Engineering, both authors of the paper “A biorefinery for mobility?,” published in October 2011 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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Source and Photo: FAPESP, February, 2012
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Sustainable charcoal

By Marcos de Oliveira
FAPESP - Better known for being used at barbecues, charcoal in Brazil is also responsible for the production of 30% of the pig iron, the metal alloy used for producing the steel used in vehicles, machines, ships, trains, cables and other products. Worldwide, this percentage is less than 1%. Thus, part of the steel made in the country is renewable, unlike the use of coal, which requires the exploration of finite mines, often underground, and in the case of Brazil is almost all imported. Charcoal or coal is essential for supplying the carbon in pig iron. The problem is that around 50% of Brazilian charcoal production, whether for barbecues or for producing steel, is also carried out in a rudimentary way, in a brick-oven, which is highly polluting and looks like an oca [Indian hut] or igloo, called a meda or rabo-quente [hot tail], and often uses native wood. The solutions, including the social solution because the industry often employs children and slave labor, are beginning to appear as a result of research by companies and universities and also the need for technological advances in the production of charcoal.

Source and Photo: FAPESP, November 2011
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Embrapa Researcher optimizes production of transgenic

By Leonel Rocha
Revista Época – The Centers Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology and Embrapa Coffee patented the technique called “Compositions and methods for modifying the expression of genes of interest” that promises to enhance the development of transgenic plants. The technique is based on a study of the seedling gene responsible for defining where, when and under conditions the desired characteristics will be expressed in the plant. The goal is to isolate the genes called “promoters” and make them available in a catalog to be used in production.
Currently, to develop a transgenic plant scientists typically use constitutive promoters. This means that the gene was inserted into the transgenic will be manifest in all plant parts, in all stages of development, regardless of environmental conditions. With this technique developed by researchers at Embrapa, the copy takes energy to produce a protein excessively unnecessary in the whole plant and all the time.
The new technology allows the gene that was inserted; it is expressed only when and where needed. In the case of coffee berry borer, for example, a gene for resistance to pests can be controlled by a promoter specific for the bulk product, preventing the reproduction of the beetle transmitter. In five years Embrapa expected to provide a database of promoters.

Source: Revista Época, May 18th, 2012
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Work of Brazilian researcher is featured in Nature

By Karina Toledo

Agência FAPESP – For more than 20 years, researcher Paulo Mazzafera has attempted to create a naturally caffeine-free variety of coffee that can be grown on a commercial scale. The study was featured in Nature magazine on March 15. Twice before, Mazzafera, full professor at the Vegetal Biology Department at State University of Campinas (Unicamp) Biology Institute, believed that he had reached his objective. The first was in 2004, when in partnership with Maria Bernadete Silvarolla, a researcher at the Campinas Agronomy Institute (IAC), he discovered some plants from Ethiopia that were caffeine-free through natural mutations…..>>Read More<<

Source and Photo: FAPESP, May 2nd, 2012
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Discovering new drugs requires mix of experimental and computational methodologies

By Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – Sir Tom Blundell, Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University’s Biochemistry Department, has been dedicated to structural biology and bioinformatics research with a focus on applications in medicine and discovering new drugs since 1970.

Over time, Blundell realized the growing financial difficulties that large companies in the pharmaceutical and agrochemicals areas faced when attempting to develop new products. The need to make discovering new molecules cheaper in the last two decades prompted Blundell to seek a new approach: “the discovery of new drugs based on fragments.”

The strategy consists of identifying small chemical fragments that link well-defined biological targets, utilizing computational methods to enlarge them and combine them, producing lead compounds with greater efficiency than methods based on screening large molecules.

In 1999, Blundell, his colleague Chris Abell and businessman Harren Jhoti founded Astex Therapeutics, a company that began to successfully apply the new approach to drug discovery.

The use of structural biology in diverse applications of the fragment-based approach to designing new drugs was the topic of the conference presented by Blundell on April 1st in Campinas (SP) at the opening of the course on Advanced Topics in Computational Biology – Agrochemical & Drug Design.

Coordinated by Goran Neschich of Embrapa Informática Agropecuária’s Computational Biology Research Group (GPBC), the event was held under the auspices of the São Paulo Advanced School of Sciences, a program funded by FAPESP… >>Read More<<

Source and Photo: FAPESP, May 2nd, 2012

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New international plant science network will boost collaborative research

A new European Commission-funded network launched at the end of January will coordinate plant science research across Europe and beyond. 26 partners from 23 countries will pool their resources and expertise in order to fund plant science research programmers to help address global challenges such as ensuring food security and providing sustainable Bioenergy.
The network, (ERA-NET for Coordinating Action in Plant Sciences – ERA-CAPS) will be coordinated by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). It will run until 2014 and is expected to fund two calls for collaborative research projects as well as organizing strategic workshops for identifying common priorities and activities around data sharing and open access…. >>Read More<<

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Common Algae for Biofuel Butanol Production

Alternative Energy – There have been various methods tried for reducing fossil fuel dependency and containing carbon footprints for a healthier and more eco-friendly future. Corn-produced ethanol has been used for mixing with gasoline but there have been side effects like corrosion from ethanol. Also huge tracts of precious farmlands need to be diverted for corn production. But now new research has thrown up results that show common algae can be used for biofuel production …. >>Read More<<

Source and Photo: Alternative Energy
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Embrapa Cattle Southeast search the first international patent

Avicultura Industrial – The Embrapa Cattle Southeast just completed the filing of its first international patent in Canada and the United States. The technology is being patented is a method for early identification of animals with high potential for soft flesh. The identification of these animals is done by means of molecular markers, a kind of “snippets” of DNA responsible for certain characteristics.
The technology was developed in partnership with the University Federal of São Carlos (UFSCar), and the Foundation for Research Support of São Paulo (FAPESP), and is part of the Network’s research Bifequali.
Routed to Nellore, the main basis for crosses today in Brazil, the method of identification markers have broad market, since the meat tenderness is a major challenge for this breed. For the researcher from Embrapa Luciana Regitano, who led the study, it is another tool to assist the productive sector in the selection of the best animals, besides the classical tools for genetic improvement.
The scientist points out that this year should be released other technologies of the same type by Bifequali’s network, involving markers for feed efficiency and meat quality characteristics.
The filing of the patent had already been done in Brazil in September 2010 with on the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), with support from the Office of Technological Innovation at Embrapa. After the deposit, the technology goes through tests to ensure that the charter is granted or not, meanwhile, it can be marketed.
Negotiations are underway with companies to license the method and kit of molecular markers. Besides the benefits to the productive sector, will be generate royalties to Embrapa, FAPESP and UFSCar, funds that will be reversed in further research.
According to Helio Omote, an analyst responsible for patents process in Embrapa Cattle Southeast, the choice of Canada and the United States was made after an assessment of the potential market in these countries for the commercialization of this kind of technology. In Brazil, it is estimated that the market is 40 million dollars annually. The patent application is necessary to protect and ensure the right of technology and its marketing. The Partnership with business is also essential for the Embrapa’s research results may become a final product. “We are transforming the resources invested in this research to a social benefits and practical application,” said Omote.

Source: Avicultura Industrial, March 29th, 2012
Translated by Gilberto Silber Schmidt
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Research seeks to produce enzymes for whitening cellulose

By Flora Serra

Agência FAPESP – Enzymes are among the most remarkable biomolecules. They are proteins that possess catalytic properties to accelerate chemical reactions that occur inside and outside of organisms. Enzymes have been used extensively, including by the pharmaceutical industry, to increase the efficiency of processes or reduce the costs and environmental impacts of some chemical compounds.

Source and Photo: Agência FAPESP, March 21st, 2012
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