"To address critical scientific barriers that must be overcome to advance the biofuels industry, the U.S. Department of Energy's Genomics:GTL systems biology program is creating a new generation of biological research. Included are three DOE Bioenergy Research Centers, each funded at up to $125 million over five years. These DOE centers will be supported by multidisciplinary teams of top scientists from 18, leading U.S. universities, seven DOE national laboratories, at least one nonprofit organization and a range of private companies. A major focus will be on learning to re-engineer biological processes to develop new, more efficient ways to improve feedstock yield's quantity and quality and for converting the cellulose into biofuels that can substitute for transportation fuels."

Objective1:Acquaint the audience with the three proposed centers, their research agendas and their objectives.

Objective2:"Describe bottlenecks in the current cellulosic ethanol pathway that should be susceptible to basic and applied. research results."

Objective3:"Describe possible cellulosic ethanol futures and identify differences between current and future conversion technologies."