Bioethanol has been recognized as a potential alternative to petroleum-derived transportation fuels. Even if cellulosic biomass is less expensive than corn and sugarcane, the higher costs for its conversion make the near-term price of cellulosic ethanol higher than that of corn ethanol and even more than that of sugarcane ethanol. Conventional process for bioethanol production from lignocellulose includes a chemical/physical pre-treatment of lignocellulose for lignin removal, mostly based on auto hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis, followed by saccharification of the free accessible cellulose portions of the biomass. The highest yields of fermentable sugars from cellulose portion are achieved by means of enzymatic hydrolysis, currently carried out using a mix of cellulases from the fungus Trichoderma reesei. Reduction of (hemi)cellulases production costs is strongly required to increase competitiveness of second generation bioethanol production. The final step is the fermentation of sugars obtained from saccharification, typically performed by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The current process is optimized for 6-carbon sugars fermentation, since most of yeasts cannot ferment 5-carbon sugars. Thus, research is aimed at exploring new engineered yeasts abilities to co-ferment 5- and 6-carbon sugars. Among the main routes to advance cellulosic ethanol, consolidate bio-processing, namely direct conversion of biomass into ethanol by a genetically modified microbes, holds tremendous potential to reduce ethanol production costs. Finally, the use of all the components of lignocellulose to produce a large spectra of biobased products is another challenge for further improving competitiveness of second generation bioethanol production, developing a biorefinery.

The objective of the Springer Handbook of Enzymes is to provide in concise form data on enzymes sufficiently well characterized. Data sheets are arranged in their EC-Number sequence. Each volume comprises one enzyme class, sometimes the enzyme classes have to be divided into several volumes. Considerable progress has been made in enzymology since the publication of the first edition (published as "Enzyme Handbook"): many enzymes are newly classified or reclassified. In the 2nd edition each entry is correlated with references and one or more source organisms. New datafields are created: "application" and "engineering" (for the properties of enzymes where the sequence has been changed). Altogether the amount of data has doubled so that the 2nd edition will consist of 39 volumes plus synonym index. This collection is an indispensable source of information for researchers in biochemistry, biotechnology, organic and analytical chemistry, and food sciences.

There is hardly an area of research developing so quickly and raising so many promises as stem cell research. Adult, embryonic and recently available induced pluripotent stem cells not only foster our understanding of differentiation of endo-, ecto- and mesodermal lineages to all organs of the body, but foremost nourish the hope that cells grown in culture can be used for regeneration of diseased organs such as the heart damaged by myocardial infarction. This book focuses on perspectives of stem cells for regenerative therapy of cardiovascular diseases. Based on the EC consortium INELPY, it reviews the field and disseminates major outcomes of this project. Thus it introduces the reader to this fascinating area of research and incorporates very recent findings interesting to the expert, spanning the field from bench to bedside. The compilation of contributions is unique as there is yet no similar comprehensive overview combining stem cell research with preclinical and clinical evaluation as well as engineering of tissue patches for transplantation. As such it will be an invaluable source of information for all researchers in the stem cell and tissue regeneration field including bioengineers as well as for all clinicians interested in regenerative therapies, especially for ischemic cardiomyopathies.

This book reports the latest work on green technologies in palm oil milling processes, including new processes and various optimisation techniques. It covers the latest developments on palm oil milling process with new technologies, alternative solvent design, residual oil recovery, palm oil mill effluent treatment, palm biomass supply chain, as well as ecoindustrial park concept. The book is intended for industrial practitioners and academics interested in green technologies for palm oil milling processes.

Ionic Surfactants and Aqueous Solutions: Biomolecules, Metals and Nanoparticles covers a wide range of subjects related to aqueous systems, from reverse micelles as ion exchangers to the study of micellar phase transfer catalysis for nucleophilic substitution reactions. The diverse background, expertise and professional interests of the contributors to this book give to it a unique richness of approach in topics of relevance for biotechnology and environmental studies. Over sixty publications presenting research results are combined and expanded in this book by some of the original researchers. At a mature age, and at the summit of successful professional careers, they have taken a second look to the state of the art in the fields that they had pioneered. Eva Rodil and Ana Soto, who had their research formation in the group of Professor Alberto Arce at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, are presently professors at that university, Maen Husein is a professor at University of Calgary, Canada. Remy Dumortier, Mohammad Khoshkbarchi, Hamid Rabie and Younok Dumortier Shin, are presently active leaders in the industrial world in Canada and the USA. The editors are retired academics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and coauthors of the book Classical Thermodynamics of Fluid Systems.

Enzymes and whole cells are able to catalyze the most complex chemical processes under the most benign experimental and environmental conditions. In this way, enzymes and cells could be excellent catalysts for a much more sustainable chemical industry. However, enzymes and cells also have some limitations for nonbiological applications: fine chemistry, food chemistry, analysis, therapeutics, and so on. Enzymes and cells may be unstable, difficult to handle under nonconventional conditions, poorly selective toward synthetic substrates, and so forth. From this point of view, the transformation-from the laboratory to industry-of chemical processes catalyzed by enzymes and cells may be one of the most complex and exciting goals in biotechnology. For many industrial applications, enzymes and cells have to be immobilized, via very simple and cost-effective protocols, in order to be re-used over very long periods of time. From this point of view, immobilization, simplicity, and stabilization have to be strongly related concepts. Over the last 30 years, a number of protocols for the immobilization of cells and enzymes have been reported in scientific literature. However, only very few protocols are simple and useful enough to greatly improve the functional properties of enzymes and cells, activity, stability, selectivity, and related properties.

sector. This ensured eventual transfer of the technology demonstrated at the wo- shops and Technical Meetings to marketable devices. BIOSET provided assistance for researchers from European laboratories to meet to exchange ideas, use equ- ment, and establish a basis for new joint projects. The secretariat of the Concerted Action BIOSET supported the Technical Meetings. There were three Technical Meetings held, two in Berlin in 1997 and 1998, and the third in Barcelona, in April 2000. The goal of these technical meetings was to join different research and industrial teams to evaluate the performance of their biosensor technology in field conditions with common and standardized surface and waste waters. As a result of these field experiments, the additional information that biosensors can offer to environmental monitoring was also evaluated. Thus, these three Technical Meetings were useful accompanying measures and practical additions to the currently organized yearly workshops. The concerted action BIOSET was f- lowed by the SENSPOL network. The 1st SENSPOL Workshop was held on the 9-11 May 2001 on Sensing Technologies for Contaminated Sites and Groundwater at the University of Alcala. There was one special Workshop on "Genotoxicity Biosensing (TECHNOTOX)" supported by the European Commission DG XII D-1 and BIOSET in the year 2000. The TECHNOTOX meeting at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) in Mol was organized by Phillippe Corbisier (VITO), Peter-D. Hansen (TU Berlin) and Damia Barcelo (CSIC Barcelona).

Traditional food and bioprocessing technologies are facing challenges due to high expectation from the consumers and producers for better quality and safety, higher process efficiency, and products with novel properties or functionalities. For this reason, in the last few years new forms of physical energies have been explored to propose alternatives to traditional processing technologies. Acoustic energy has the potential to replace or partially substitute conventional processes, and at the same time offer unique opportunities in the characterization of foods and biomaterials. This book is a resource for experts and newcomers in the field of power ultrasound, gives insights into the physical principles of this technology, details the latest advancements, and links them to current and potential applications in the food and bioprocessing related industries.

This 2nd edition begins with an overview of NMR development and applications in biological systems. It describes recent developments in instrument hardware and methodology. Chapters highlight the scope and limitation of NMR methods. While detailed math and quantum mechanics dealing with NMR theory have been addressed in several well-known NMR volumes, chapter two of this volume illustrates the fundamental principles and concepts of NMR spectroscopy in a more descriptive manner. Topics such as instrument setup, data acquisition, and data processing using a variety of offline software are discussed. Chapters further discuss several routine stategies for preparing samples, especially for macromolecules and complexes. The target market for such a volume includes researchers in the field of biochemistry, chemistry, structural biology and biophysics.

The objective of the Springer Handbook of Enzymes is to provide in concise form data on enzymes sufficiently well characterized. Data sheets are arranged in their EC-Number sequence. Each volume comprises one enzyme class, sometimes the enzyme classes have to be divided into several volumes. Considerable progress has been made in enzymology since the publication of the first edition (published as "Enzyme Handbook"): many enzymes are newly classified or reclassified. In the 2nd edition each entry is correlated with references and one or more source organisms. New datafields are created: "application" and "engineering" (for the properties of enzymes where the sequence has been changed). Altogether the amount of data has doubled so that the 2nd edition will consist of 39 volumes plus synonym index. This collection is an indispensable source of information for researchers in biochemistry, biotechnology, organic and analytical chemistry, and food sciences.

This two-volume work surveys the entire range of general aspects of chromosome research on plants. This first volume is divided into two sections. Section A consists of 11 chapters covering the entire range of general aspects of chromosome research in plants (including a chapter on genetic engineering in crop improvement). Section B is devoted to cytogenetics of cereals and millets (wheat, rye, barley, triticale, oats, maize, rice, pearl millet, and minor millets). More than one chapter is devoted to the same crop to give a detailed treatment of chromosome research (including molecular biology) in these crops.

The second volume deals with cytogenetics of plant materials including legumes, vegetable and oil crops, sugar crops, forage crops, fibre crops, medicinal crops and ornamentals. This work will be useful both as a reference work and a teaching aid to satisfy a wide range of workers. Every chapter has been written by an expert who has been involved in chromosome research on a particular plant material for many years.

Dynamic Single-Use Bioreactors Used in Modern Liter- and m3- Scale Biotechnological Processes: Engineering Characteristics and Scaling Up, by Christian Loffelholz, Stephan C. Kaiser, Matthias Kraume, Regine Eibl, Dieter Eibl. Orbitally Shaken Single-Use Bioreactors, by Wolf Klockner, Sylvia Diederichs, Jochen Buchs.

Therapeutic Human Cells: Manufacture for Cell Therapy/Regenerative Medicine by Christian van den Bos, Robert Keefe, Carmen Schirmaier, Michael McCaman.

Fast Single-Use VLP Vaccine Productions Based on Insect Cells and the Baculovirus Expression Vector System: Influenza as Case Study by Regine Eibl, Nina Steiger, Sabine Wellnitz, Tiago Vicente, Corinne John, Dieter Eibl.

Microbial High Cell Density Fermentations in a Stirred Single-Use Bioreactor by Thomas Dreher, Bart Walcarius, Ute Husemann, Franziska Klingenberg, Christian Zahnow, Thorsten Adams, Davy de Wilde, Peter Casteels, Gerhard Greller.

Quorus Bioreactor: A New Perfusion-Based Technology for Microbial Cultivation by Sheena J. Fraser, Christian Endres.

Cultivation of Marine Microorganisms in Single-Use Systems by Friederike Hillig, Maciej Pilarek, Stefan Junne, Peter Neubauer.

Flexible Biomanufacturing Processes that Address the Needs of the Future by Bernhard Diel, Christian Manzke, Thorsten Peuker.

An Approach to Quality and Security of Supply for Single-Use Bioreactors by Magali Barbaroux, Susanne Gerighausen, Heiko Hackel.

A Risk Analysis for Production Processes with Disposable Bioreactors by Tobias Merseburger, Ina Pahl, Daniel Muller, Markus Tanner."

The increasing demand for environmentally friendly materials and the need for cheaper fibres points the search in the direction of natural products such as bark, leaves, scales or shells. The aim of this book is to provide a forum to review the recent advances in the area of plant and animal-based composites and identify possible trends for further developments.

In the last decade, a number of powerful kernel-based learning methods have been proposed in the machine learning community: support vector machines (SVMs), kernel fisher discriminant (KFD) analysis, kernel PCA/ICA, kernel mutual information, kernel k-means, and kernel ARMA. Successful applications of these algorithms have been reported in many fields, such as medicine, bioengineering, communications, audio and image processing, and computational biology and bioinformatics. ""Kernel Methods in Bioengineering, Signal and Image Processing"" covers real-world applications, such as computational biology, text categorization, time series prediction, interpolation, system identification, speech recognition, image de-noising, image coding, classification, and segmentation. ""Kernel Methods in Bioengineering, Signal and Image Processing"" encompasses the vast field of kernel methods from a multidisciplinary approach by presenting chapters dedicated to adaptation and use of kernel methods in the selected areas of bioengineering, signal processing and communications, and image processing.

This consolidated reference book addresses the various aspects of nano biomaterials used in ophthalmic drug delivery, including their characterization, interactions with ophthalmic system and applications in treatments of the ophthalmic diseases and disorders. In the last decade, a significant growth in polymer sciences, nanotechnology and biotechnology has resulted in the development of new nano- and bioengineered nano-bio-materials. These are extensively explored as drug delivery carriers as well as for implantable devices and scaffolds. At the interface between nanomaterials and biological systems, the organic and synthetic worlds merge into a new science concerned with the safe use of nanotechnology and nano material design for biological applications. For this field to evolve, there is a need to understand the dynamic forces and molecular components that shape these interactions. While it is impossible to describe with certainty all the bio physicochemical interactions at play at the interface, we are at a point where the pockets of assembled knowledge are providing a conceptual framework to guide this exploration, and review the impact on future product development. The book is intended as a valuable resource for academics and pharmaceutical scientists working in the field of polymers, polymers materials for drug delivery, drug delivery systems and ophthalmic drug delivery systems, in addition to medical and health care professionals in these areas.

This book reviews alternative and renewable energy resources in order to pave the way for a more sustainable production in the future. A multi-disciplinary team of authors provides a comprehensive overview of current technologies and future trends, including solar technologies, wind energy, hydropower, microbial electrochemical systems and various biomass sources for biofuel production. In addition, the book focuses on solutions for developing countries. Conventional energy sources are finite, and estimates suggest that they will be exhausted within a few decades. Finding a solution to this problem is a global challenge, and developing countries in particular are still highly dependent on fossil fuels due to their rapidly growing populations accompanied by a huge growth in primary energy consumption. Moreover, the most common conventional energy sources (coal and petroleum) are non-sustainable since their combustion exponentially increases greenhouse gas emissions. As such, there is a pressing need for clean energy based on alternative or renewable resources, not only to ensure energy supplies at an affordable price but also to protect the environment.

The objective of the Springer Handbook of Enzymes is to provide in concise form data on enzymes sufficiently well characterized. Data sheets are arranged in their EC-Number sequence. Each volume comprises one enzyme class, sometimes the enzyme classes have to be divided into several volumes. Considerable progress has been made in enzymology since the publication of the first edition (published as "Enzyme Handbook"): many enzymes are newly classified or reclassified. In the 2nd edition each entry is correlated with references and one or more source organisms. New datafields are created: "application" and "engineering" (for the properties of enzymes where the sequence has been changed). Altogether the amount of data has doubled so that the 2nd edition will consist of 39 volumes plus synonym index. This collection is an indispensable source of information for researchers in biochemistry, biotechnology, organic and analytical chemistry, and food sciences.

This book presents the first comprehensive text on construction biomaterials and bioprocesses. It details aspects of construction biotechnology, a new interdisciplinary area involving applications of environmental and industrial microbiology and biotechnology in geotechnical and civil engineering. It also critically reviews all existing and potential construction biotechnology processes. It discusses a number of topics including the biotechnological production of new construction materials such as self-healing concrete, construction biocomposites, construction bioplastics, and biotechnological admixtures to cement. It also addresses construction-related processes like biocementation, bioclogging, soil surface fixation and biosealing, microbial cements and grouts, the biocoating of construction material surfaces, the microbiology and biosafety of the construction environment, the prevention of biocorrosion as well as biodeterioration and biofouling in civil engineering. Biomediated precipitation of calcium, magnesium, and iron compounds as carbonates, phosphates, sulphides, and silicate minerals in soil for its clogging and strengthening are considered from geotechnical, chemical, and microbiological points of view. It offers an overview of the basic microbiology that will enable civil engineers to perform the construction biogeochemical processes. Design principles and considerations for different field implementations are discussed from a practical point of view. The book can be used as a textbook for graduate and senior undergraduate students in biotechnology, civil engineering and environmental engineering as well as a reference book for researchers and practitioners working in this new interdisciplinary area.

Advanced biotechnologies enable breeders to produce a whole generation of new crops for specialist needs (designer crops), including raw materials for the energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. This book provides concerns useful to promote an increase of the productivity of crops by using functional genomics (to understand the regulation of plant metabolism at molecular, cellular and whole plants), and the improvement of photosynthetic efficiency (to design new plants with enhanced raw materials percent and recovery). Fundamental thematics have been addressed: metabolic engineering, plant breeding tools, renewable biomass for energy generation, fibres and composites, biopharmaceuticals. The gained know how is relevant to identify bottlenecks in the major production chains and to propose actions for moving these issues forward.

Until recently, knowledge of ruminant gut microbiology was primarily obtained using classical culture based techniques, which probably only account for 10 to 20% of the rumen microbial population. New gene-based technologies can now be employed to examine microbial diversity through the use of small sub-unit ribosomal DNA analysis (e.g. 16S rDNA) and to understand the function of complex microbial ecosystems in the rumen through metagenomic analysis. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize the understanding of rumen function and will overcome the limitations of classical based techniques, including isolation and taxonomic identification of strains important to efficient rumen function and better understanding of the roles of microorganisms in relation to achieving high productivity and decreasing environmental pollutants. This book presents a comprehensive up-to-date account of the methodologies and protocols for conventional and modern molecular techniques that are currently in use for studying the gut microbial ecology of ruminants. Each chapter has been contributed by experts in the field and methods have been presented in a recipe-like format designed for direct practical use in the laboratory and also to provide insight into the most appropriate techniques, their applications and the type of information that could be expected. The techniques and procedures described are also relevant and adaptable to other gastrointestinal ecosystems and the microbiology of anaerobic environments in general. This manual will a ~demystifya (TM) the methods in molecular microbial ecology for readers who are novice in the field but are excited by the prospects of the technology. Itwould also be invaluable for the experienced workers striving for giving new dimension to their research a" expanding the work in other fields and initiating cross-cutting activities.

Altogether, the biochemical, technical and economic limitations on existing proka- otic and eukaryotic expression systems and the growing clinical demand for complex therapeutic proteins have created substantial interest in developing new expression systems for the production of therapeutic proteins. To that end, plants have emerged in the past decade as a suitable alternative to the current production systems, and today their potential for production of high quality, much safer and biologically active complex recombinant pharmaceutical proteins is largely documented. The chapters in this volume, contributed by leaders in the field, sum up the state-- the-art methods for using a variety of different plants as expression hosts for phar- ceutical proteins. Several production platforms are presented, ranging from seed- and leaf-based production in stable transgenic plant lines, to plant cell bioreactors, to viral or Agrobacterium-mediated transient expr ession systems. Currently, antibodies and their derived fragments represent the largest and most important group of biote- nological products in clinical trials. This explains why the potential of most prod- tion platforms is illustrated here principally for antibodies or antibody fragments with acknowledged potential for immunotherapy in humans. In addition, a comparison of different plant expression systems is presented using aprotinin, a commercial phar- ceutical protein, as a test system. Although multiple books and monographs have been recently published on mol- ular pharming, there is a noticeable dearth of bench step-by-step protocols that can be used quickly and easily by beginners entering this new field.

The development of sustainable and renewable biofuels is attracting growing interest. It is vital to develop robust microbial strains for biocatalysts that are able to function under multiple stress conditions. This Microbiology Monograph provides an overview of methods for studying microbial stress tolerance for biofuels applications using a systems biology approach. Topics covered range from mechanisms to methodology for yeast and bacteria, including the genomics of yeast tolerance and detoxification; genetics and regulation of glycogen and trehalose metabolism; programmed cell death; high gravity fermentations; ethanol tolerance; improving biomass sugar utilization by engineered Saccharomyces; the genomics on tolerance of Zymomonas mobilis; microbial solvent tolerance; control of stress tolerance in bacterial host organisms; metabolomics for ethanologenic yeast; automated proteomics work cell systems for strain improvement; and unification of gene expression data for comparable analyses under stress conditions.

This book explains biosensor development fundamentals. It also initiates awareness in engineers and scientists who would like to develop and implement novel biosensors for agriculture, biomedicine, homeland security, environmental needs, and disease identification. In addition, the book introduces and lays the basic foundation for design, fabrication, testing, and implementation of next generation biosensors through hands-on learning.