SBIR Phase II: Sustainable alternative protein cultivation from fungal mycelium for human consumption

SBIR 第二阶段：从真菌菌丝体中培育可持续替代蛋白质供人类食用

• 批准号: 1926981
• 负责人: Justin Whiteley
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: Emergy LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1926981&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Sustainable; alternative

The broader impact and commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is a new source of human-grade protein that it can be produced at an estimated half the price of wholesale chicken and 2000 times higher protein yields per acre compared to soy with a fraction of the input requirements. The new protein addresses pain points in industry of potential allergens, amino acid composition, poor flavor and texture, and limited processability. If successfully commercialized, Emergy's potential impact is the ability to provide high quality protein to millions of people at 50% the price of animal protein, while saving the world greenhouse gas emissions, all with a significantly reduced land footprint.This SBIR Phase II proposes to use the efficiencies of biological organisms to produce high quality, economical, and sustainable protein for human consumption. To achieve this goal, Emergy grows filamentous fungi biomass as a human-grade protein source. The fungal biomass has one of the highest protein contents of any raw source available on the market (60% by weight) and is one of the only complete proteins. Emergy has developed fermentation parameters and used directed evolution to produce a fungal process/strain that provides several inherent advantages over traditional protein production methods. Advantages of production include, low resource requirements, high yields, safe and toxin free, and low unit costs. While this process has been demonstrated at the benchtop level, the technical hurdles include scaling production to industrial systems while maintaining the proper texture and quality. Emergy Labs plans on executing these goals by optimizing growth conditions in scaled bioreactors, defining industrial operating parameters, designing and proving a scalable manufacturing process, and demonstrating commercially relevant scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 项目的更广泛影响和商业潜力是人类级蛋白质的新来源，其生产成本估计为批发鸡肉的一半，与大豆相比，每英亩的蛋白质产量高出 2000 倍，而投入需求仅为大豆的一小部分。这种新蛋白质解决了潜在过敏原、氨基酸组成、风味和质地差以及加工性能有限等行业痛点。如果成功商业化，Emergy 的潜在影响是能够以动物蛋白 50% 的价格向数百万人提供高质量的蛋白质，同时减少世界温室气体排放，同时显着减少土地足迹。SBIR 第二阶段建议利用生物有机体的效率来生产高质量、经济且可持续的蛋白质供人类消费。为了实现这一目标，Emergy 种植丝状真菌生物质作为人类级蛋白质来源。真菌生物质是市场上任何原材料中蛋白质含量最高的之一（按重量计 60%），也是唯一的完整蛋白质之一。 Emergy 开发了发酵参数并使用定向进化来生产真菌工艺/菌株，与传统的蛋白质生产方法相比，该工艺/菌株具有多种固有优势。生产的优点包括资源需求低、产量高、安全无毒、单位成本低。虽然这一工艺已在实验室水平上得到验证，但技术障碍包括将生产规模扩大到工业系统，同时保持适当的质地和质量。 Emergy Labs 计划通过优化规模化生物反应器中的生长条件、定义工业操作参数、设计和证明可扩展的制造工艺以及展示商业相关规模来实现这些目标。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。