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- đź’§ The Rise of Midwest Hydrogen
đź’§ The Rise of Midwest Hydrogen
AND The History of Biotech at UChicago
Landon Campbell
January 22, 2024
Hey Friends! 🚙 👋🏽
Welcome to the 42nd edition of the Driver’s Seat
📍 Today’s Lineup:
đź’§ The Rise of Midwest Hydrogen
🔬 Biotech Discoveries at UChicago
đź—ş Events Around the City
🔙 Previous Issues of the Driver’s Seat
đź’§ The Rise of Midwest Hydrogen
Towards the end of 2023, the Department of Energy announced a $7B investment to launch seven regional clean hydrogen hubs to reduce industrial emissions and cut 25M metric tons of carbon-based fuels each year. The seven hubs will receive between $400M and $1.2B of federal funding.
Notably, the Midwest will be home to two of these hydrogen hubs:
Midwest Hydrogen Hub
Includes Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan
Set to receive $1B to produce hydrogen by leveraging the region’s diverse and abundant energy sources, including renewable energy, natural gas, and low-cost nuclear energy.
The region aims to use hydrogen for steel and glass production, power generation, refining, heavy-duty transportation, and sustainable aviation fuel.
Heartland Hydrogen Hub
Includes Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota
Set to receive up to $925M to leverage the region’s abundant energy resources to help decarbonize the agricultural sector’s production of fertilizer, decrease the regional cost of clean hydrogen, and use clean hydrogen for power generation.
Why This Matters
As the global / national energy landscapes evolve, regions need to adapt to stay competitive and meet new environmental standards. The development of hydrogen infrastructure positions the Midwest to be at the forefront of this transition.
🔬 Biotech Discoveries at UChicago
The University of Chicago has been known for many achievements in science and technology. In fact, they were one of the first institutions to morph the study of both to create Biotech.
Today, UChicago’s Biological Sciences Division is their largest academic division, with 10 basic science and 14 clinical departments.
Let’s dive into a few of their notable discoveries:
Health Innovations
In 1925, Nathaniel Kleitman, known as the father of sleep research, established the first sleep laboratory at UChicago, which was pivotal in his later discovery of REM sleep.
Oswald Robertson developed and pioneered the idea of blood banks.
Leon O. Jacobson's work on red blood cell production and radiation effects led to the first successful bone marrow transplant.
In 1967, Donald F. Steiner discovered that human insulin was produced as a single chain, which he termed pro-insulinm (the precursor of insulin)
Biological Studies
Botanist Henry Chandler Cowles developed the study of ecology at UChicago.
Ernest Everett Just's PhD research led to a key finding: in a marine worm, the initial cell division is influenced by where the sperm enters the egg.
Paul Sereno's work in discovering new dinosaur species in the 1990s significantly enhanced our understanding of the dinosaur family tree.
Technological Advancements
In 2013, Robert Grossman created the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, a pioneering cloud computing system for cancer genetics research.
In 1979, pharmacologist Leon Goldberg created Methylnaltrexone, which is mainly used today for treating opioid-induced illnesses.
🗺️ Events Around The City
Chicago AI Tinkerers 2024 Kickoff
Hosted by Drive Capital
Tuesday Jan 23
Chicago Climate Tech Happy Hour
Hosted by Dipalo Ventures X gener8tor
Wednesday Jan 24
Chicago EdTech coffee meetup
Hosted by Pete Pillizzari
Wednesday Jan 24
Coffee, Capital & Conversations
Hosted by Trinet
Thursday Jan 25
Chicago VIP Startup Mixer
Hosted by Founder Institute
Thursday Jan 25
The Windy City Venture Crawl
Hosted by GENESIS
Friday Jan 26
đź‘‹ See you next week!
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram for even more Chicago startup news and photos of my favorite restaurants in the city.
Spent the day at @NorthwesternU. One of their Intro to AI courses has 230 students enrolled this semester. Up from 30 students a year ago.
There’s so much excitement for language models happening on university campuses in Chicago.
Next step: Keep builders here.đź“Ť
— Landon (@landon20s)
10:59 PM • Jan 17, 2024
