Research Focus
Todd R. Pray is the Department Head for Process Engineering & Analytics in Berkeley Lab’s Biological Systems & Engineering Division, and is the Program head for DOE’s Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU). He received his PhD in Biophysics from The University of California, San Francisco in 2000. At Berkeley Lab, he leads the ABPDU team in its collaborative projects with Industry, academic and National Lab partners for the optimization, development and pilot prototyping of manufacturing process for biofuels, bio-based chemicals, biomaterials and proteins such as food ingredients and industrial enzymes. Todd is the Process Integration and Scaling Task Co-Lead for the Agile BioFoundry, and is also a member of the Steering Committee for BETO’s Bioprocessing Separations Consortium and the PI for the ABPDU.
Projects in the Agile BioFoundry
* Process Integration and Scaling Task Co-Lead
* Bioreactor and downstream process development and screening
* Interface with BETO Bioprocessing Separations Consortium
Featured Publications
Sun N, Xu F, Sathitsuksanoh N, Thompson VS, Cafferty K, Li C, Tanjore D, Narani A, Pray TR, Simmons BA, Singh S (2015). Blending municipal solid waste with corn stover for sugar production using ionic liquid process. Bioresource Technol.
Frederix M, Mingardon F, Hu M, Sun N, Pray T, Singh S, Simmons B, Keasling J and Mukhopadhyay A (2016). Development of an E. coli strain for one-pot biofuel production from ionic liquid pretreated cellulose and switchgrass. Green Chem.
C Li, L. Liang, N Sun, VS Thompson, F Xu, A Narani, Q He, D Tanjore, TR Pray, BA Simmons, S Singh (2017). Scale up and process integration of sugar production by acidolysis of municipal solid waste/corn stover blends in ionic liquids. Biotechnol Biofuels
Ling Liang, Chenlin Li, Feng Xu, Qian He, Jipeng Yan, Tina Luong, Blake A. Simmons, Todd R. Pray, Seema Singh, Vicki S. Thompson, and Ning Sun (2017). Conversion of cellulose rich municipal solid waste blends using ionic liquids: feedstock convertibility and process scale-up. RSC Adv.
Akash Narani, Phil Coffman, James Gardner, Chenlin Li, Allison E. Ray. Damon S. Hartley, Allison Stettler, N.V.S.N. Murthy Konda, Blake Simmons, Todd R. Pray, Deepti Tanjore (2017). Predictive modeling to de-risk bio-based manufacturing by adapting to variability in lignocellulosic biomass supply. Bioresource Technol
Junko Yaegashi, James Kirby, Masakazu Ito, Jian Sun, Tanmoy Dutta, Mona Mirsiaghi, Eric R. Sundstrom, Alberto Rodriguez, Edward Baidoo, Deepti Tanjore, Todd Pray, Kenneth Sale, Seema Singh, Jay D. Keasling, Blake A. Simmons, Steven W. Singer, Jon K. Magnuson, Adam P. Arkin, Jeffrey M. Skerker and John M. Gladden (2017). Rhodosporidium toruloides: a new platform organism for conversion of lignocellulose into terpene biofuels and bioproducts. Biotechnol Biofuels
Sebastian Kolinko, Yu-Wei Wu, Firehiwot Tachea, Evelyn Denzel, Jennifer Hiras, Raphael Gabriel, Nora Bäcker, Leanne Jade G. Chan, Stephanie A. Eichorst, Dario Frey, Qiushi Chen, Parastoo Azadi, Paul D. Adams, Todd R. Pray, Deepti Tanjore, Christopher J. Petzold, John M. Gladden, Blake A. Simmons & Steven W. Singer (2017) A bacterial pioneer produces cellulase complexes that persist through community succession. Nature Microbiology
Timo Schuerg, Jan‑Philip Prahl, Raphael Gabriel, Simon Harth, Firehiwot Tachea, Chyi‑Shin Chen, Matthew Miller, Fabrice Masson, Qian He, Sarah Brown, Mona Mirshiaghi, Ling Liang, Lauren M. Tom, Deepti Tanjore, Ning Sun, Todd R. Pray and Steven W. Singer (2017). Xylose induces cellulase production in Thermoascus aurantiacus. Biotechnol Biofuels