Danielle Nelson
Papers
1
Total Citations
16
H-Index
1
About
Danielle Nelson is a biotechnologist whose research centers on engineering thermotolerant yeasts for advanced biofuel production. Her most cited work, “Automated UV-C Mutagenesis of *Kluyveromyces marxianus* NRRL Y-1109 and Selection for Microaerophilic Growth and Ethanol Production at Elevated Temperature on Biomass Sugars” (2013, 16 citations), demonstrates her core contribution: developing a high-throughput, automated mutagenesis platform to enhance yeast performance under industrial stress conditions. By systematically irradiating *K. marxianus* with UV-C and selecting for strains that thrive at elevated temperatures with limited oxygen, Nelson directly addressed a critical bottleneck in cellulosic ethanol production—the need for robust microbes capable of fermenting mixed biomass sugars efficiently. Her work provides a practical, scalable method for generating yeast variants with improved ethanol yields and thermotolerance, reducing cooling costs and contamination risks in commercial biorefineries. This foundational study has informed subsequent efforts to optimize microbial catalysts for renewable fuel synthesis, making Nelson a notable figure in applied yeast biotechnology and sustainable energy research.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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