Daniel Amador-Noguez, an assistant professor of bacteriology, is learning how living organisms transform nutrients into energy and other useful chemicals. He knows firsthand the links between the fuel that makes our bodies go and the biofuels that propel our machines because he studies both. When it comes to metabolism, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Getting to the bottom of these mysteries could help Amador-Noguez improve biofuels, inform us about our guts’ determinations of what’s friend or foe, and even provide the basic science to individualize medical treatments based on a person’s own microbiome. He focuses on the series of chemical reactions that occur when tiny living things digest, otherwise known as microbial metabolic networks. Read more about the passion behind his vocation and how studying biofuels and the gut microbiome might not be all that different: https://go.wisc.edu/986hbs