By Amanda Kerr
We’re all familiar with how plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to create their own food through photosynthesis. But what if we could make that process more efficient to improve crop yields or biofuel production?
That’s what NC State University researcher Nathan Ennist hopes to do through his work on developing proteins that can perform artificial photosynthesis. Ennist, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, joined the faculty in 2025, bringing an interdisciplinary approach to his cutting-edge research that blends the study of light with the biochemistry of proteins.
We caught up with Ennist to learn about his innovative research and how developing a process for artificial photosynthesis could eventually open the door to new possibilities in agriculture.
What is the focus of your research?
I’m designing proteins that combine chlorophyll molecules, iron sulfur clusters, and other pigments and electron transfer co-factors to convert light into chemical energy. And then I want to put those designed proteins into plants or photosynthetic bacteria to try to improve biofuel production, nitrogen fixation or food crop production.
Source : ncsu.edu