Science

Industrial Synthetic Biology Platform

We identify the need for renewable alternatives through both our own research and through insights gleaned from our partners and customers in the market place. We investigate the key molecular properties that are essential to a current product’s performance and then analyze the chemical structures that drive those characteristics. Understanding of these chemical structures allows us to identify target molecules or simple derivatives of molecules that may be produced by our engineered biological systems.

We then apply our proprietary technology to the pursuit of this target molecule. The key components of our industrial synthetic biology platform are strain engineering, process development, scale-up and chemical finishing.

Strain Engineering: The primary biological pathway within the microbe that we currently use to produce our target molecules is the isoprenoid pathway. Isoprenoids consist of a large, diverse class of molecules with current product applications in a wide range of industries, including specialty chemicals and fuels. Our platform utilizes proprietary high-throughput processes to create and test thousands of yeast strains a day in order to choose those yeast strains that are most efficient and scalable.

Process Development and Scale-up: The basis of our production is a well-established fermentation process that uses our genetically-engineered yeast strains to convert the sugar source into target molecules such as farnesene. We employ a multi-stage scale-up approach to progress from laboratory scale to commercial production scale. We maintain a constant feedback loop between our laboratory, where strains are initially created and modified, and our two pilot plants, where we expose those strains to conditions that simulate a commercial production environment. This allows us to focus our microbe development resources on those strains that demonstrate the potential to scale effectively.

Chemical Finishing: In certain cases, our biologically-derived molecule is itself the end product. In others, it serves as an intermediary molecule that is then converted into other products by means of simple chemistry steps such as hydrogenation and polymerization.