Next-generation Biofuels and Bio-based Chemicals — Synthetic biology tools such as directed evolution, enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering, and genome engineering are used to design microorganisms for cost-effective production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals from renewable feedstocks. In parallel, systems biology tools such as genomics, metabolomics, computational modeling, and genome-scale modeling are used to understand the biological mechanisms and provide guidelines for synthetic biology efforts.
http://chbe.illinois.edu/research/energy-conversion-devices-and-systems

Illinois Center for Industrial Biotechnology (iCIB) — The center is focused on the development and applications of systems biology, synthetic biology, bioprocessing, and computational modeling tools for cost-effective production of next-generation biofuels and bio-based chemicals from renewable feedstocks.