Barstow Research Team

Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University

Meet the Microbes That Munch Mountains of Mining Waste

An article in Scientific American on the Microbe-Mineral Atlas and what it means for biomining.


Homeworld Collective

Esteban Gazel and I talk with longtime friend of the lab Dan Goodwin on climate biotech on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.


Rare Earth Exchanges

Talk with Dustin and Daniel of Rare Earth Exchanges on YouTube.


Microbes that extract rare earth elements also can capture carbon

An article in the Cornell Chronicle that features on our work on engineering microorganisms to mine rare earth elements, discovery of new non-acid mediated mechanisms for rare earth extraction, and CO2 sequestration.


There’s one rare earths mine in the US. How that might change soon.

An article in the Christian Science Monitor that features on our work on mining rare earth elements.


Electrons travel one of two routes in nano-biohybrid systems

An article in the Cornell Chronicle on our work with with Tobias Hanrath and Peng Chen on semiconductor-microbe hybrids first reported in PNAS.


Carl Sagan's 90th Birthday: An Arts Unplugged Celebration

Live stream of the Carl Sagan Institute's symposium for Carl Sagan's 90th birthday. Buz speaks from ≈ 2:25 to 2:38, but the whole thing is worth watching.


Microbe atlas could reveal how to mine critical metals sustainably

An article in the Cornell Chronicle on our new Microbe-Mineral Atlas project.


Low-cost microbe can speed biological discovery

An article in the Cornell Chronicle on David Specht and TJ Sheppard's work on engineering natural competence (DNA uptake) into Vibrio natriegens.


Little bacterium may make big impact on rare-earth processing

An article in the Cornell Chronicle on Sean Medin and Stacie Dressel's work on engineering Vibrio natriegens for selective rare earth biosorption.


Microbial miners take on rare-earth metals

A technology feature in Nature on rare earth biomining.


Bacteria could be the key to a safer, greener way of processing rare-earth metals

An interview on NPR's Marketplace Tech on rare earth separations using engineered microbes.


Imaging Shows How Inorganic-Microbe Hybrids Use Light to Turn Carbon Dioxide into Bioplastic

An article covering work by Peng Chen in Cornell Chemistry (and us) on how Ralstonia eutropha converts CO2 and electricity to bioplastic on the DOE Office of Science.


Researchers Commercialize Rare-earth Tech with I-Corps Help

An article about how Barstow Lab Alum Alexa Schmitz and grad student Sean Medin commercialized rare earth biomining tech developed in our lab on the Cornell Chronicle.


Imaging shows how solar-powered microbes turn CO2 into bioplastic

An article covering work by Peng Chen in Cornell Chemistry (and us) on how Ralstonia eutropha converts CO2 and electricity to bioplastic on the Cornell Chronicle.


NY Lt. Gov. Tour Highlights Sustainability, Equity

An article covering the recent visit to our lab by Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado to our lab by the Cornell Chronicle.


Entrepreneurs Find Home as Activate Fellows at Praxis Center

An article covering Alexa's Activate fellowship, and starting REEgen at the Cornell Praxis Center by the Cornell Chronicle.


Rising Women Innovator Awards

Here's a great piece on Alexa's Rising Women Innovator award from Cornell Tech Licensing by the Cornell Chronicle. And here's a link to a video about it on YouTube.


Rare Earth Element Bio-mining

Here's a great piece on our rare earth element bio-mining work by the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining.


Cornell Engineers Are Pioneering a Novel Method for Mining Metals That Are Key to Unlocking a Sustainable Future

Here's a great piece on our rare earth element bio-mining work by Chris Dawson that originally appeared in Cornell Engineering Magazine.


Using Microbes, Scientists Aim to Extract Rare-Earth Elements

Here's a story in the Chronicle about an award we received from ARPA-E for rare earth element bio-mining in the Cornell Chronicle.


Engineers Go Microbial to Store Energy, Sequester CO2

Here's another piece written by Blaine Friedlander on Farshid's theory of electromicrobial production that appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.


Interdisciplinary Team Gets $2M Grant for Bioenergy Conversion

Here's a story about an award we received (in collaboration with Peng Chen in Cornell Chemistry, who's the lead professor) in the Cornell Chronicle.


Wiring Up Bacteria to the Grid

We're quoted by Carl Zimmer from the New York Times.


Engineered Bacteria Could Be Missing Link in Energy Storage

Here's a piece written by Krishna Ramanujan on Farshid's review of some of the fundamentals of using microbes to store electricity electromicrobial production that appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.


Princeton Researchers Propose Biological Solutions to Sustainable Energy Problems

You can find more about the challenges of sustainable energy and proposed solutions in our review article in Chem and in a Q&A piece written by Princeton Chemistry's science writer, Tien Nguyen, on the Princeton Chemistry website.


Sudoku Strategy Democratizes Powerful Tool for Genetics Research

You can find out more about Knockout Sudoku in a great popular piece written by Princeton Chemistry's science writer, Tien Nguyen, on the Princeton Chemistry website.


Preprints

We are big fans of using preprints to speed up the dissemination of scientific information. Here's Buz talking about preprints on an eLife webinar.