Rittmann receives top research award from the Arizona BioIndustry Association

Dr. Bruce Rittmann

The Arizona BioIndustry Association has honored Dr. Bruce Rittmann, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Environmental Biotechnology, with the 2009 Award for Research Excellence.
 
Rittmann is an international leader in using microbes found in nature in ways that can benefit the environment or human health. His research team tackles some of the world’s leading problems related to water, waste and energy. Their research projects include pollution cleanup, treating water and wastewater, capturing renewable energy, and understanding how microbes in the digestive system may be linked to obesity, as well as other efforts.

“Let’s hear it for anaerobic bacteria,” said Rittmann upon accepting the award. “Thanks so much to the Arizona BioIndustry Association and Arizona Cure. I want to give special thanks to my absolutely wonderful colleagues at the Biodesign Institute.”

Rittmann, a Regents’ professor in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, was also honored this past year with the Simon W. Freese Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Environmental Water and Resource Institute, for his innovative work on using microorganisms to improve water quality.  Especially noteworthy is the membrane biofilm reactor, a technology now being commercialized to destroy a wide range of pollutants found in waters and wastewaters.  This technology can remove harmful contaminants such as perchlorate, nitrates, and arsenate from water and soils --- problems that are vital to the future of the Southwest, where Colorado River water is used by seven states.

Rittmann is part of an ASU research team using two innovative approaches to renewable bioenergy: harnessing anaerobic microbes to convert biomass to useful energy forms, such as methane, hydrogen, or electricity; and using photosynthetic bacteria or algae to capture sunlight and produce new biomass that can be turned into liquid fuels, like biodiesel.
 
To improve human health, his research team’s collaboration with the Methuselah Foundation is exploring how to mitigate aging by identifying naturally occurring microbes to clean up the ‘junk’ that accumulates in our bodies. In addition, in an innovative study with partner Mayo Clinic Arizona, Rittmann’s group explored the causes of obesity by identifying microbial communities to offer new clues in the body weight differences in average, obese and gastric bypass subjects.
 
“They’ve discovered a dramatic difference between people who are obese and average weight in the types of bacteria that colonize the human gut,” said Dr. Alan Nelson, executive director of the Biodesign Institute. “It really changes the whole paradigm of how we think of obesity, as a key factor may include controlling the bacterial population of the human gut.”

Biodesign executive director Dr. Alan Nelson was among the featured speakers at the event. Nelson provided an update on the new Biodesign Impact Accelerator, the institute’s venture to help foster and fast-track university spinout companies.

The association’s annual awards ceremony, the largest gathering of Arizona's bioscience community, took place Thursday, September 24th, at the Arizona Grand Resort.