By Marianne Love

Cell and molecular biologist Chhandak Basu, a professor at California State University Northridge, was recently granted the prestigious Distinguished Fulbright Scholarship award for his expertise in plant and microbial cellular responses to climate change and environmental extreme effects.

Basu shares this award with Igor Cesarino — a professor in Brazil at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences and his students — who together will study how drought stress, brought on by climate change, impacts the potential to use plants as biofuel and plants’ reaction to climate change.

Biofuels offer an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, but their production can be limited by drought conditions and plant structural components. It has been advocated as an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum and other fossil fuels such as coal, according to environmental experts.

“The energy crisis (over) the centuries is huge,” Basu said at his lab in Chaparral Hall on the CSUN campus in San Fernando Valley. “Let’s face it, this coal and petroleum is a one-way ticket. Once it burns you cannot bring back the coal. If you have a plant in your house and if you can somehow get fuel out of the plant … it’s like an ATM machine (and) constantly gives you fuel.”

Basu teaches in CSUN’s College of Science and Mathematics and specializes in plants and microbes responses to environmental extremes, part of the award’s concentration.

He will interact with the Brazilians one month this year and one next year.

Under his Fulbright award, Basu will teach a course at the University of São Paulo’s entitled, “Biotechnology for Biofuels,” that counts towards a degree or certificate if completed. In addition, he will conduct a student-focused seminar on climate change and agricultural productivity as part of the Distinguished Fulbright Scholarship award.

He headed to South America on July 10 to meet up with Cesarino, who is Basu’s host. The scientist duo plan to study genes in plants that switch on and off due to climate change. The hope is they can eventually alter the plants’ genes to make them stronger despite climate change.

Their study concentrates on sugarcane and a type of grass called foxtail plant — two species important for bioethanol production. Biofuels are made from organic matter that can be replenished relatively quickly, unlike fossil fuels which take millions of years to form from the remains of ancient plants and animals and are classified as non-renewable resources.

“By studying that switch on-off mechanism it will lead us to an overall study to see if (the foxtail and sugarcane) can fight these changes,” said Basu. “If we can understand how they react, then we can make them more resilient to climate change.”

The study abroad will also explore whether other plants can fight climate change. For example, he said, although tobacco can kill people it’s the “ultimate plant leaf” with a large surface.

“The trick is to incentivize farmers to grow tobacco for biofuel purposes,” Basu said.

Scientists also have their eyes on corn.

“You have a corn plant, you extract the sugar, you farm it to make ethanol, and the ethanol goes into the gas tank– and the cycle repeats itself over and over,” Basu said, adding that corn kernels can then be consumed by the public and the cob can be used for biofuel.

The Fulbright “distinguished” category is highly competitive and Basu was honored to receive it. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board was created by Congress through the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 to supervise the U.S. government’s flagship program of international education and cultural exchange.

The program awards roughly 8,000 merit-based grants each year in about 160 countries, and the board meets quarterly to select scholarship participants and establish the policies and procedures governing the non-partisan Fulbright Program.

But in mid-June, all but one of the 12 members on the board resigned in opposition to the Trump’s administration move to deny awards to several individuals the board had selected, vetted, and approved for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Basu said he was concerned, but his scholarship wasn’t cancelled. His co-partner in the research, Cesarino, said the award was very significant.

“For years I was trying to study how environmental stresses affect the composition of plant biomass,” Cesarino said. “And now with Dr. Basu’s help, we might be able to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in the phenylpropanoid-related responses in plants” — responses that play vital roles in plant growth, development, defense and adaptation to various environmental conditions.

Cesarino added the Fulbright collaboration with the United States will help boost international relationships as it has always been intended to do.

“It will allow an immersive international experience for my students, as they will be in contact with Dr. Basu for a whole month in 2025 and again in 2026,” he added. “Thus, I hope we can come up with interesting ideas for future collaborative projects and also the possibility for some of my students to spend some time at CSU (Northridge) for training in key areas, which are currently not available in my lab.”

Decades ago, Brazil embarked on producing ethanol-powered vehicles and committing to sustainable energy. Today, the country is a global leader in biofuels for transportation,  according to industry experts.

“The vast majority, more than 75 percent of cars sold in Brazil, are ‘flex’,” Cesarino said. “We use this term to refer to cars that can run either on gasoline or ethanol — you can choose. But these cars are not necessarily running on ethanol, because the driver can decide which fuel to use depending on the price. I would say that at least 50 percent of all cars in Brazil run on ethanol.”

Scientists are hopeful that one day biofuel will fully power cars and other machinery as well. “This Fulbright Award is a meaningful step toward making that future a reality, although it’s been a long time coming,” Basu said.