When electrons move, they are the electricity that powers life. But they are hard to pin down. The newly engineered system could guide electron transfer over long distances, powering future applications in medicine or 'green' fuel production.

'Hoarding' resources in the same location encourages more efficient chemical reactions. Someday, we could use this system to enhance the production of rubber, biofuels, and other commodities.

The new synthetic biology tools allow to produce both terpenoids and oil, a biofuel resource, in plant leaves.

The new methods let scientists assemble the factories on demand and insert custom molecules inside them for further processing. The aim is to eventually design sustainable medical, industrial, or energy applications.

The system lowers cultivation and harvesting costs and increases productivity, factors that currently hold back biofuels from being widely adopted.

The Kerfeld lab announces two new methods for manipulating bacterial factories for biotech aims: one is to screen and extract the factories, the other is to predictably insert custom enzymes in them.

The alga Nannochloropsis is increasingly of interest for the production of biofuels and other oil-based chemicals.

Atsuko Kanazawa reflects on collaborative projects in West Africa that contribute to local food security, like identifying drought-resistant beans or supporting women-run experimental farms.