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Professor Banta gave a seminar entitled “Engineering of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans for biofuel, biomining and biotechnology applications” in the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University, St. Louis, MO

A new manuscript by Willett, Koder and Banta explores the apparent reversibility of NAD+ kinase enzymes.  Animal forms of the enzyme are found to be reversible and this work demonstrates the human form is apparently irreversible due to strong product inhibition by NAD+.  These enzymes are useful for the interconversion of NAD+ and NADP+ and reversible forms could also be useful in ATP regeneration applications.  The new results were published in Biochemistry. 

A new manuscript by Jung, Inaba, Vardner, West and Banta describes the engineering of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans for the overexpression of the licanantase protein. This leads to increased biofilm formation which enables enhanced bioleaching of both covellite and chalcocite.  This work presents a proof of concept where the secretome of biomining bacteria could be engineered for enhanced copper recovery for sulfidic ores.  The new results were published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.