Ratul Chowdhury awarded funds to tackle livestock agriculture methane emission impacts
March 13, 2025 – Ames, Iowa – Methane emissions are a powerful contributor to global climate change. Over half of emissions come from anthropogenic sources such as landfills, wastewater, and fossil fuel production. Methane reduction is often described as an “emergency brake” because targeted reductions can be consequential in the near-term for the betterment of long-term climate outcomes.
One unexpected source of methane emissions is from livestock digestion. Ruminant livestock, such as cattle, buffalo, goats and sheep produce methane through their digestion process, known as enteric fermentation. If livestock diets could be adapted to produce less methane emissions, it could lead to a powerful impact on the agricultural industry and global climate.
Dr. Ratul Chowdhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Building a World of Difference Faculty Fellow, and a member of the Nanovaccine Institute at Iowa State University has been awarded funds from Gerstner Philanthropies, in partnership with the Global Methane Hub’s Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator, to lead a two-state, multi-institution project to leverage an AI-based computational framework to explore compounds that will reduce the enteric methane production in ruminant livestock.
The team, including collaborators at Texas A&M University and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, seek to systematically identify new classes of inhibitors, or compounds, that are chemically distinct from commercial inhibitors, efficacious, and non-toxic. The study will use AI models to design and rank possible molecules based on how well they are predicted to interact with the MCR enzyme, which plays a key role in methane production. Promising molecules will then be tested in the lab to measure two key outcomes: how effectively they reduce methane production, without compromising (or better, improving) overall gas production, which indicates that digestion and health are not negatively affected. The team has released a research preprint describing their intended approach and preliminary results.
“Without structurally and biochemically grounded AI-tools, progress in methane mitigation will remain incremental and non-interpretable, slowing our progress towards global climate goals,” says Dr. Chowdhury.
Understanding the compounds of ruminant diets can help build more tailored feed that is globally scalable to reduce emissions. Outcomes from this research will enable farmers and ranchers to customize the diet of ruminant animals to produce less methane during digestion. This will support the health of the animals, improve environmental outcomes, and bolster farm income.
Gerstner Philanthropies is a private foundation that focuses on biomedical research, educational opportunities, environmental sustainability, and short-term financial assistance to prevent homelessness. Learn more by visiting www.gerstner.org.
The Global Methane Hub is a philanthropic collaborative whose mission is to accelerate action by governments, civil society, researchers, investors, and the private sector to develop and implement strategies that will catalyze rapid systemic reductions in methane emissions in the energy, agriculture, and waste sectors. Learn more by visiting their website.