His research focuses on the production of biofuels, as well as protein synthesis. He is interested in understanding how microbes extract carbon from plant biomass, an abundant resource for a sustainable chemical industry. Dr. Cate’s lab is using synthetic biology and systems approaches to retool baker’s yeast for biorefinery applications. The lab also probes the molecular basis for protein synthesis, and the structural basis for antibiotic action on the ribosome. Dr. Cate received his Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, and has been on the UC Berkeley faculty since 2001. He received a Searle Scholars award in 2000 and was honored with the 2008 Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award of The Protein Society. More