Recombinant proteins have a variety of applications, including to produce industrial enzymes, which are used in home and personal care products, biofuels, paper and pulp.
However, current processes for producing recombinant proteins are not sustainable. They rely on a small number of bacterial- and yeast-based production systems that use sugar as a feedstock and release carbon dioxide.
A new collaboration between the Agile BioFoundry and Kiverdi will seek to develop a sustainable and commercially viable platform that produces recombinant proteins at high yields.
Kiverdi has developed a process in which a chemolithoautotrophic bacterium uses carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sustainable industries or from conventional industrial waste sources.
Kiverdi will leverage the Agile BioFoundry’s capabilities to improve the platform’s commercial viability and demonstrate C. necator as a production host organism. This would establish C. necator as a powerful host for protein production and secretion that could be leveraged by others interested in industrial-scale protein production.
“This collaboration is crucial for early-stage development of our platform, providing us with expertise and techno-economic analysis that could rapidly advance us from concept to deployment and guide our development,” said Dan Robertson of Kiverdi. “The protein production and secretion system developed during this project could serve broadly as a platform for industrial production of a wide variety of proteins.”
This collaboration between the Agile BioFoundry and industry is one of five projects totaling over $3 million announced by the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct research and development needed to accelerate the U.S. biomanufacturing sector. The Agile BioFoundry is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office.