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

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛的影响和商业潜力是一种新的人级蛋白质来源，与投入需求的一小部分大豆相比，它可以生产出估计是批发鸡肉价格的一半，每英亩蛋白质产量高出2000倍。这种新蛋白质解决了潜在过敏原、氨基酸组成、风味和质地差以及可加工性有限等行业痛点。如果成功商业化，Energy的潜在影响是能够以动物蛋白50%的价格为数百万人提供高质量的蛋白质，同时节省世界温室气体排放，所有这些都显著减少了土地足迹。这项SBIR第二阶段计划利用生物有机体的效率生产高质量、经济和可持续的蛋白质供人类消费。为了实现这一目标，Energy种植丝状真菌生物质作为人类级别的蛋白质来源。真菌生物质的蛋白质含量是市场上所有原料中最高的之一(按重量计为60%)，也是唯一完整的蛋白质之一。Energy已经开发了发酵参数，并使用定向进化来生产真菌过程/菌株，这提供了几个与传统蛋白质生产方法相比的固有优势。生产的优势包括，资源需求低，产量高，安全无毒，单位成本低。虽然这一过程已经在桌面级别得到了演示，但技术障碍包括将生产扩展到工业系统，同时保持适当的质地和质量。能效实验室计划通过优化规模化生物反应器的生长条件，定义工业操作参数，设计和证明可扩展的制造工艺，并展示与商业相关的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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.