What are biofuels? How can they help us meet our future energy needs while minimizing negative environmental impacts?

With support from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) at UW-Madison, students in freshman biology classes at Monona Grove High School have been learning how to answer those questions through a process called bioprospecting.

Bioprospecting is the process of discovering new products based on resources found in nature. You may be familiar with drug discovery as a form of bioprospecting; for example, certain species of plants have been investigated as possible cancer treatments. Students at MG used bioprospecting to find species of wild yeast or bacteria that may be useful for producing ethanol as a biofuel.