Bio-based production of high-value added ingredients
- Reference number
- RBP14-0013
- Start and end dates
- 150101-201231
- Amount granted
- 28 894 452 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Chalmers University of Technology
- Research area
- Life Science Technology
Summary
There is an increasing demand for developing sustainable production of chemicals used in our daily life. Biotechnology offers the possibility to use renewable feedstocks for production of chemicals. Through engineering the metabolism of cell factories it is possible to develop novel biocatalysts by metabolic engineering, and these can be used to produce value-added chemicals that replace traditional production based on extraction from plants or from fossil fuels. The objective of this project is to develop novel yeast cell factories through metabolic engineering for cost-competitive production of cocoa butter, jojoba oil and fatty alcohols. Cost competitive production will require high rates and yields, but as all products considered in this project are derived from fatty acids it will be possible to use a common cell factory platform that has a highly efficient conversion of sugars to fatty acids. We will establish such a platform cell factory using forward engineering, mutagenesis, microfluidic screening, genome-sequencing and systems biology. As part of the project we will also evaluate the use of microalgae as a cell factory for production of fatty alcohols. The value added products considered are widely used in the food and cosmetics industry and face increasing supply problems, and through establishment of fermentation-based production it will be possible to produce these products in large volumes using sustainable feedstocks such as biomass.
Popular science description
The development of societal values are closely linked with microorganisms, which have been employed for ages to produce fermented food and beverages. With the development of genetic engineering in the 1970s, it became possible to attenuate their behavior and harness them for beneficial applications to the society. The subsequent technological revolution in biology, which facilitated sequencing complete genomes, measuring the concentration of proteins and metabolites, conveyed the true complexity in the operation of even simple biological systems as microorganisms. Consequently, understanding microorganisms is no longer restricted to microbiologists, but rather requires a concerted team of engineers, computer scientists, molecular- and micro-biologists. Sweden is among the world leaders in promoting interdisciplinary research with the objective to understand biological systems. However, the major focus of research on microorganisms in Sweden is restricted to their role in human health and infection. Research on using microorganisms for biotechnology applications, for example, in the production of chemicals and fuels is relatively small. Increasing global concern on climate change and diminishing petroleum resources have opened up immense potential for using microorganism to replace environmentally harsh chemical processes with “greener” bioprocesses. It is widely predicted that microorganisms will have an elevated role in the society in the future because they have the capability to produce a wide range of compounds that are now produced by chemical means or extracted from plants. The major limitation is in our ability to understand them in sufficient detail to engineer them to suit our needs. Overcoming this limitation is the goal of industrial biotechnology. In this project, we aim to develop the technology to develop “designer microorganisms” that can be used for production of value-added ingredients used in the cosmetics and food industry. We will engineer yeast to produce oils, waxes and fatty alcohols that have a wide range of applications in the cosmetics and food industry, either as key ingredients, e.g. cocoa butter in chocolate and waxes in cosmetics. We will also evaluate whether fatty alcohols can be produced directly from sunlight and carbondioxide, which would enable sustainable production with a very low environmental footprint.