The Thirty-First Annual Biochemical Engineering Symposium was held on September 7 and 8, 2001, at Kansas State University. The program included 10 oral presentations and 3 posters; however the paper by Boyack and Gilcrease was not presented because the presenter was ill and unable to come. Some of the papers describe work that is in progress while others describe completed projects. Many of the authors intend to submit their work for publication elsewhere in a more complete form. A listing of those who attended is given below. The activities began on Friday evening with an indoor picnic because of rain and wind.

Contents

Bioreduction of Chromium(VI) by Inactivated Medicago Sativa (Alfalfa) Biomass - Kenneth M Dokken, Jorge L. Gardea-Torresdey, Kirk J. Tiemann, Jason G. Parsons, and Gerardo Gamez

TNT Transformation by Plants: Role of Hydroxylamines in the Pathway - Murali Subramanian and Jacqueline V. Shanks

Plant Uptake and Transformation of Benzotriazoles - Sigifredo Castro, Lawrence C. Davis, and Larry E. Erickson

Microbial Degradation of 5-Methyl Benzotriazole - Kaila Young, Larry Erickson, Lawrence Davis, and Sigifredo Castro Diaz

Understanding Protein Structure-Function Relationships in Family 47 a-1,2-Mannosidases through Computational Docking of Ligands - Chandrika Mulakala and Peter J. Reilly

A Mathematical Model for Carbon Bond Labeling Experiments: Analytical Solutions and Sensitivity Analysis for the Effect of Reaction Reversibilities on Estimated Fluxes - Ganesh Sriram and Jacqueline V. Shanks

Platelet Derived Nitric Oxide (NO) Inhibits Thrombus Formation: The Role of Insulin - R.H. Williams and M U. Nollert

Molecular Mechanics Calculations to Quantify Segmental Interactions in Bioerodible Polyanhydrides: Consequences for Drug Delivery - Matt Kipper and Balaji Narasimhan

Three-Dimensional Hydrophobic Cluster Analysis: The Use of a Virtual Environment for Protein Sequence Analysis: HELIX v0.3 - Anthony D. Hill, Alain Laederach, and Peter J. Reilly

Mechanical Performance of Elastin-Mimetic Hydrogels - Eder D. Oliveira, Sharon A. Hagan, and Stevin H. Gehrke

Multiple Sequence Alignment and Phylogenetic Analysis of Family 1 β-Giycosidases - Anthony D. Hill, Alain Laederach, and Peter J. Reilly