Burckhard Seelig

Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
University of Minnesota

Imagine the time before there were proteins

The Seelig group investigates the emergence and early evolution of proteins at the origin of life. 

We apply high-through-put methods of selection and directed evolution to generate artificial proteins that nature has never seen before. Those proteins help us better understand how the first ever proteins could have appeared or how the genetic code may have evolved.

Besides studying these fundamental science questions, we are also interested in applying directed evolution to create enzymes as “designer catalysts” to harness the power of enzymes for the synthesis of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and for biomedical applications.

Bo Hu

Bioproduct & Biosystems Engineering
University of Minnesota

Process development for bioproducts generation & nutrients recycle from agricultural wastes

Nutrients, such as nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and sulfur (S), are vital components for fertilizers and animal feeds, while they are also the major pollutants from rural domestic wastewater and agricultural manure.

Improving utilization efficacy of these nutrients in animal feeds and recycle these nutrient pollutant from rural and agricultural wastes can minimize the environmental impacts of agricultural activities, alleviate the dependency on fossil fuels, and bring benefits to local communities.

Dr. Bo Hu will introduce his research at University of MInnesota related to this area, emphasizing on biomass utilization, industrial fermentation and agricultural waste management. His research group is currently working on projects to improve nutritional value of animal feeds via fungal fermentation, remove phosphorus, nitrogen and sulfur from agricultural waste and sewage sludge via different approaches, including microbial electro-chemical cells and re-design of anaerobic digestion. 

In this presentation, he will explain several case studies in the process development for nutrients removal and recycle.

THURSDAY  I FEB. 9 I  3:30-4:30 PM CST  I  HYBRID SEMINAR