The conversion of biomass into fermentable sugars is a critical aspect of realizing biofuels as an alternative to petroleum-based fuels.  Lignocellulosic biomass is of particular national interest because it is abundant and is not a food crop.  While the cellulose and hemicellulose components of lignocellulosic biomass can be enzymatically hydrolyzed to release sugars, the encrusting lignin component cannot.  Expensive and energy-intensive non-biological pretreatments are currently required to degrade lignin enough to allow enzymes access to the cellulose/hemicellulose.  This hurdle has limited the use of lignocellulosic biomass on an industrial scale.  In nature, some organisms have been identified that can degrade lignin.  For example, the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium utilizes a number of secreted peroxidases, in combination with small molecule cofactors and mediators, to catalyze the degradation reaction.  Our goal is to develop a process for degrading lignocellulosic biomass, via the following objectives: (1) Define the key enzymes, mediators, and cofactors in the fungal degradation of biomass, (2) Characterize the detailed interaction of those key molecules with biomass, and (3) Combine cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin degrading enzymes with mediators and cofactors in a consolidated biomass conversion process.   A multidisciplinary approach, which includes various imaging techniques, enzymatic analyses of lignin degradation, theoretical modeling of biomass degradation, and identification of metabolites and expressed proteins by mass spectrometry, is being used to tackle this difficult problem.  In this presentation, we discuss our latest data and progress.