Towards Commercial Protein Production through Co-Engineering Marine Microorganisms and Feedstocks for Precision Fermentation

我们正在重新设计精密发酵，以实现真正可扩展的无动物食品生产。不可持续的农业和畜牧业是温室气体排放、土地使用变化和用水的主要驱动因素之一。为了对抗环境退化，食品行业一直在寻找创新技术来生产无动物蛋白质。精确发酵允许在微生物中生产生物化合物。通过这种方法，可以在酵母和真菌中生产动物蛋白，并用于人类消费。然而，精密发酵是一项50多年前开发的技术，并针对胰岛素等高价值药物化合物的生产进行了优化。如果不进行根本性的重新设计，它就无法解决当前食品行业面临的关键挑战。在BravelyCultured，我们是一个由博士科学家和食品供应链可持续发展专家组成的团队，我们正在选择新型海洋微生物和海藻为基础的原料进行精确发酵。我们的目标是开发一种技术，将我们的食品供应链从农业中分离出来，并将其转向利用地球上最丰富的资源-海洋。该项目的核心目标是共同优化我们以海藻为基础的饲料以及最有前途的酵母和真菌菌株，以提高纤维素酶的分泌能力。纤维素酶广泛用于葡萄酒、咖啡、果汁、造纸和纺织工业。我们的目标是提供具有成本效益和可持续生产的纤维素酶来源（在最佳海藻原料上生长的高产纤维素酶分泌微生物），创造易于商业化的结果。我们的新型海洋微生物在海藻原料上培养时自然产生纤维素酶。为了进一步提高纤维素酶的产量，我们将采用定向进化和随机诱变技术。我们将与原料开发专家Multus Biotechnology合作，优化我们的海藻原料，显著提高精确发酵的经济性。从长远来看，我们设想应用合成生物学方法设计我们的优化菌株，用于在可持续原料上生产动物蛋白，这将成为我们商业化战略的基石。通过这笔赠款，我们渴望释放精准发酵的巨大潜力，为更可持续和更道德的食品未来铺平道路。

We are redesigning precision fermentation to enable truly-scalable animal-free food production.Unsustainable agriculture and livestock industry are among the key drivers of GHG emissions, land use change and water use. To fight against environmental degradation, the food industry has been looking at innovative technologies to produce animal-free proteins. Precision fermentation allows production of biological compounds in microorganisms. Through this method, animal proteins can be produced in yeast and fungi and utilised for human consumption. However, precision fermentation is a technology developed over 50 years ago and optimised for the production of pharmaceutical high-value compounds like insulin. Without fundamental redesigning it cannot solve the key challenges that the current food industry is facing.At BravelyCultured we are a team of PhD scientists and food supply-chain sustainability experts and we are selecting for novel marine microorganisms and seaweed-based feedstocks for precision fermentation. Our goal is to develop the technology which will decouple our food-supply chains from agriculture and shift it towards utilisation of the most plentiful resource on the planet -- the ocean.The core objective of this project is to co-optimize our seaweed-based feedstocks and the most promising yeast and fungal strains to enhance cellulase enzyme secretion capacity. Cellulase finds extensive use in wine, coffee, juice, paper, and textile industries. Our aim is to provide a cost-effective and sustainably produced source of cellulase (high yielding cellulase secreting microorganism growing on optimal seaweed based feedstock), creating a readily commercialisable outcome.Our novel marine microorganisms naturally produce cellulase when cultivated on seaweed feedstocks. To further enhance cellulase yields, we will employ directed evolution and random mutagenesis techniques. Collaborating with Multus Biotechnology, experts in feedstock development, we will optimise our seaweed-based feedstocks, significantly improving the economics of precision fermentation.In the long term, we envision applying synthetic biology approaches to engineer our optimised strains for animal protein production on sustainable feedstocks, forming the cornerstone of our commercialisation strategy. Through this grant, we are eager to unlock the vast potential of precision fermentation and pave the way for a more sustainable and ethical food future.