About

The provided page text does not contain specific biographical information about Professor Vijay Singh, including details about his research focus, background, or key contributions. Therefore, a detailed professional biography cannot be extracted from the given content.

Research topics

• Food science
• Chemistry
• Engineering
• Pulp and paper industry
• Biotechnology
• Materials science
• Biology
• Computer Science
• Waste management
• Agronomy
• Medicine
• Traditional medicine
• Biochemistry
• Systems engineering
• Biochemical engineering
• Organic chemistry
• Process engineering
• Combinatorics
• Environmental science
• Mathematics
• Chromatography

Selected publications

• A scalable acetate-to-food biomanufacturing platform using synthetic consortia

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Selective designer hydrolysates from Miscanthus bioenergy crop for sustainable utilization

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Data for Protoplast Fusion as a Strategy to Increase Ploidy in Rhodotorula toruloides for Strain Development

  Illinois Data Bank · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen access

  Rhodotorula toruloides is a red oleaginous yeast with growing commercial interest because of its hardiness and exceptional lipid production capacity. Because it is a basidiomycete yeast with a complex life cycle, many of the classical breeding methods used with ascomycetes are unavailable for strain improvement. However, we have been able to construct polyploid yeast by fusing protoplasts of parents with the same mating type. Fusing of Y-6985 (A2) and Y-48190 (A2), which had been transformed with complementary antibiotic markers, led to the recovery of two diploids and one triploid. The stability of the fusion yeasts was tested by plating them on non-selective medium after several growth cycles under antibiotics and then testing five colonies per strain for nuclear DNA contents using flow cytometry and standard cell cycle analysis: the triploid and one diploid were stable. Fusants inherited their mitochondria from a single parent, which was demonstrated using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of mitochondrial DNA. The phenotypic properties of the parents and fusants were compared in glucose fed-batch bioreactor studies and cellulosic sugar batch cultures. The final lipid titers for the fed-batch cultures were 24.9–39.7 g/L with Y-6985 and the diploid and triploid performing the best and worst, respectively. The fusants demonstrated intermediate hardiness for growth on hydrolysate prepared with dilute-acid pretreated switchgrass and were outperformed by Y-48190. Unlike one of the haploid parents, the fusants grew in 70% v/v concentrated hydrolysate. However, they did not grow as fast as the other haploid. In this study, a modernized protoplast fusion method is resurrected a useful tool for strain development in this yeast, which is complementary with other available methods.

  PublisherDOI

• Data for "Adsorptive Separation and Recovery of Triacetic Acid Lactone from Fermentation Broth"

  Illinois Data Bank · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Triacetic acid lactone (TAL) can be microbially produced and further chemically upgraded to several high-value chemicals. In this work, several acidic and basic ion-exchange resins and activated charcoal were evaluated for their ability to adsorb microbially produced TAL. Activated charcoal and a weak base resin, Dowex 66, showed similar TAL adsorption capacity of 0.18 ± 0.002 g/g. At 15% w/v activated charcoal, about 98% of TAL present in fermentation broth could be adsorbed. Further, ethanol washing allowed recovery of 72% of adsorbed TAL. A biorefinery producing TAL from sucrose was designed, simulated, and evaluated (through technoeconomic analysis) under uncertainty, for an estimated TAL minimum product selling price (MPSP) of $4.27/kg [$3.71−4.94/kg; 5th-95th percentiles] for the current state of technology and $2.83/kg [$2.46–3.29/kg] following potential near-term improvements to fermentation. Thus, this work provides an adsorptive process to recover microbially produced TAL that can be chemically upgraded to several industrial products.

  PublisherDOI

• Protoplast fusion as a strategy to increase ploidy in <i>Rhodotorula toruloides</i> for strain development

  Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology · 2025-12-09

  articleOpen access

  Rhodotorula toruloides is a red oleaginous yeast with growing commercial interest because of its hardiness and exceptional lipid production capacity. Because it is a basidiomycete yeast with a complex life cycle, many of the classical breeding methods used with ascomycetes are unavailable for strain improvement. However, we have been able to construct polyploid yeast by fusing protoplasts of parents with the same mating type. Fusing of Y-6985 (A2) and Y-48190 (A2), which had been transformed with complementary antibiotic markers, led to the recovery of two diploids and one triploid. The stability of the fusion yeasts was tested by plating them on non-selective medium after several growth cycles under antibiotics and then testing five colonies per strain for nuclear DNA contents using flow cytometry and standard cell cycle analysis: the triploid and one diploid were stable. Fusants inherited their mitochondria from a single parent, which was demonstrated using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of mitochondrial DNA. The phenotypic properties of the parents and fusants were compared in glucose fed-batch bioreactor studies and cellulosic sugar batch cultures. The final lipid titers for the fed-batch cultures were 24.9-39.7 g/L with Y-6985 and the diploid and triploid performing the best and worst, respectively. The fusants demonstrated intermediate hardiness for growth on hydrolysate prepared with dilute-acid pretreated switchgrass and were outperformed by Y-48190. Unlike one of the haploid parents, the fusants grew in 70% v/v concentrated hydrolysate. However, they did not grow as fast as the other haploid. In this study, a modernized protoplast fusion method is resurrected a useful tool for strain development in this yeast, which is complementary with other available methods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Redefining the product portfolio of oilcane bagasse biorefinery: Recovering natural colorants, vegetative lipids and sugars

  Bioresource Technology · 2025-01-08 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  • Oilcane bagasse (OCB) has been explored as an alternative feedstock for recovering anthocyanins. • Pretreatment at 150 °C for 15 min could recover > 80 % (w/w) of the total anthocyanins. • The enhanced enzymatic digestibility is marked by the 2-fold increase in the glucose yield from the pretreated biomass. • A 1.5-fold enhancement of vegetative lipid content was observed in the residue pretreated at 150 °C for 15 min. • Generation of multiple streams of value-added products from OCB is promising for revenue generation. Bioenergy crops have been known for their ability to produce biofuels and bioproducts. In this study, the product portfolio of recently developed transgenic sugarcane (oilcane) bagasse has been redefined for recovering natural pigments (anthocyanins), sugars, and vegetative lipids. The total anthocyanin content in oilcane bagasse has been estimated as 92.9 ± 18.9 µg/g of dried bagasse with cyanidin-3-glucoside (13.5 ± 18.9 µg per g of dried bagasse) as the most prominent anthocyanin present. More than 85 % (w/w) of the total anthocyanins were recovered from oilcane bagasse at a pretreatment temperature of 150 °C for 15 min. These conditions for the hydrothermal pretreatment also led to a 2-fold increase in the glucose yield upon the enzymatic saccharification of the pretreated bagasse. Further, a 1.5-fold enrichment of the vegetative lipids was demonstrated in the pretreated residue. Re-defining green biorefineries with multiple high-value products in a zero-waste approach is the need of the hour for attaining sustainability.

  PublisherDOI

• A Soy Protein Substitute for Animal Meat Proteins Can Provide Global Phosphorus Reduction and Recirculation Opportunities

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2025-12-18

  article

  Animal meat protein consumption is typically associated with environmental impacts greater than those of plant-based proteins. While most environmental impact assessments comparing animal- and plant-based proteins focus on water usage and carbon emissions, phosphorus (P) use is a key parameter for a sustainable food system. Country-specific animal and crop parameters were leveraged to evaluate the P footprint of current animal meat protein consumption and potential benefits from substitution using soy-based protein. The global average P footprint for animal meat protein consumption when considering synthetic and manure P fertilizers was an estimated 2.6 kg P year–1 per capita in 2019. A complete transition to soy protein concentrate (SPC) from animal meat protein was estimated to decrease total P fertilizer applied to animal feed products by 81%, or an estimated 8.3 million metric tons of P per year and 33% of the total estimated 2019 P fertilizer utilization. Additionally, the recovery of P during SPC processing could generate sufficient renewable P fertilizer to replace an estimated 17% of the total P utilized in global soybean production. The reduction and efficient reuse of P from a transition to SPC as a primary protein source can generate greater security and resiliency in global food systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Correction to: Transgenic Sugarcane–Oilcane: An Alternative Feedstock for the Production of Drop-in Fuel and Value-Added Bioproducts

  2025-01-01

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluating the industrial potential of emerging biomass pretreatment technologies in bioethanol production and lipid recovery from transgenic sugarcane

  Sustainable Energy & Fuels · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The selection of pretreatment methods is critical to achieving high product yields during bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resourceful and economical designing of fermentation medium for lab and commercial strains of yeast from alternative feedstock: ‘transgenic oilcane’

  Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts · 2025-01-31 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Sugarcane plant engineered to accumulate lipids in its vegetative tissue is being developed as a new bioenergy crop. The new crop would be a source of juice, oil, and cellulosic sugars. However, limited tolerance of industrially recognized yeasts towards inhibitors generated during the processing of lignocellulosic biomass to produce fermentable sugars is a major challenge in developing scalable processes for second-generation drop-in fuel production. To this end, hydrolysates generated from engineered sugarcane-'oilcane' bagasse contain added phenolics and fatty acids that further restrict the growth of fermenting microorganisms and necessitate nutrient supplementation and/or detoxification of hydrolysate which makes the fermentation process expensive. Herein, we propose a resourceful and economical approach for growing lab and commercial strains of S. cerevisiae on unrefined cellulosic sugars aerobically and fermentatively. RESULTS: An equal ratio of hydrolysate and juice was found optimum for growth and fermentation by lab and commercial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for xylose fermentation. The industrial strain grew and fermented efficiently under low aeration conditions having an ethanol titer, yield, specific and volumetric productivities of 46.96 ± 0.19 g/l, 0.51 ± 0.00 g/g, 0.27 ± 0.02 g/g.h and 1.95 ± 0.01 g/l.h, respectively, while the lab strain grew better under higher aeration conditions having the ethanol titer, yield, specific and volumetric productivities of 24.93 ± 0.09, 0.27 ± 0.00 g/g, 0.17 ± 0.00 g/g.h and 1.04 ± 0.00 g/l.h, respectively. Acclimation of cultures in a blended medium significantly improved the performance of the yeast strains. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of transgenic oilcane juice, which is inedible and rich in amino acids, to the hydrolysate averted the need for expensive nutrient supplementation and detoxification steps of hydrolysate. The approach provides an economical solution to reduce the cost of fermentation at an industrial scale for second-generation drop-in fuel production.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kent D. Rausch

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  107 shared

• Bruce S. Dien

  United States Department of Agriculture

  98 shared

• David B. Johnston

  Agricultural Research Service

  93 shared

• Robert A. Moreau

  Agricultural Research Service

  80 shared

• M. E. Tumbleson

  University of Illinois System

  78 shared

• Deepak Kumar

  57 shared

• Kevin B. Hicks

  United States Department of Agriculture

  56 shared

• S. R. Eckhoff

  Energy Biosciences Institute

  23 shared