The odds of success in yeast are rising.
Fueled by a three-year $940,000 National Science Foundation grant, faculty at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis will together use artificial intelligence to study three yeasts in hopes of making the biomanufacturing process less costly and more efficient.
The group aims to use machine learning and modeling for development of the yeasts.
Yixin Chen, a professor of computer science and engineering, is helping other engineering faculty develop the machine learning strain design. McKelvey Engineering alumni Jeff Czajka, who earned a doctorate in 2021, and Di Liu, who earned a doctorate in 2017, are co-investigators on the grant, along with Keesoo Lee, a professor of microbiology at Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Jefferson City, Mo.
The U.S. Department of Energy is providing $200,000 to support collaboration with Liu, who is now a staff scientist at Sandia National Labs.
