Biomineralization for Sustainable Metal Mining
Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering
Microorganisms have been on Earth much longer than we have. They even existed when there was no oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Without oxygen for respiration, early microorganisms used sulphur and iron. These chemolithotrophic organisms still thrive today and play critical roles in biogeochemical cycling. In my talk today, I will describe our research into how microorganisms can solve environmental issues associated with metal mining. Large quantities of waste are generated when mining for metals like copper, gold and rare earths, which are needed for our phones, computers, and EV batteries. Even though there are only low concentrations of metals in mine waste, they can still oxidize and leach out into rivers and lakes. Our microorganisms take the dissolved metals and turn them back into minerals, thus closing the metal cycle that was started with mining of natural ores. I will introduce some projects where biomineralizing microorganisms remove arsenic and selenium from metal contaminated water, and stabilize mine wastes to prevent dust.
Biology as Infrastructure: Engineering the Next Industrial Revolution
Associate Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering
Humanity faces multiple converging crises such as pandemics, climate change, ecosystem degradation, and environmental pressures from rising global prosperity. We urgently need transformative solutions. At the same time, the past three decades have also witnessed sterling advances in genomics, synthetic biology, and computation, which have re-cast living systems as programmable platforms for innovation. Biology has now matured into a form of infrastructure – an enabling layer upon which solutions to health, the energy transition, material de-fossilization and the circular economy can be built. Just as physical infrastructure underpinned the industrial age and digital infrastructure drives the current information age, biological infrastructure now offers the foundation for a sustainable one. Engineered biological systems can facilitate a more rapid response to emerging threats, enable sustainable resource recovery, as well as upcycle waste into high-value products. In this sense, biology is no longer confined to the laboratory; it is becoming the scaffolding of a new industrial paradigm where living and designed systems work in concert to sustain civilization.
In his talk, Prof. Yadav will present his team’s forays in harnessing synthetic biology, bioprocess engineering, and computational design to create deployable solutions for climate resilience, clean manufacturing, and global health. He will discuss modular cell-free systems that enable rapid, decentralized vaccine production for pandemic preparedness; bioelectrochemical platforms that recover critical metals from mine tailings while producing clean water; and data-driven biorefineries that convert agricultural waste into carbon-negative materials through engineered microbes and artificial intelligence. Each example illustrates how biology can be programmed, scaled, and industrialized to close loops, turning waste into value, liability into opportunity, and challenge into innovation. Together, these advances outline a blueprint for how engineered biology can drive the transition to a circular,
carbon-neutral economy.
Proudly Sponsored By
