Integrated rational design of cell factories for high value compounds

Project Information

Magyc

Grant agreement ID: 739761

DOI

10.3030/739761

Project closed

EC signature date 28 February 2017

Start date 15 September 2017

End date 14 September 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 110 875,00

EU contribution

€ 110 875,00

Coordinated by

SILICOLIFE SA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Magyc (Integrated rational design of cell factories for high value compounds)

Reporting period: 2017-09-15 to 2018-09-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Industrial biotechnology is being increasingly considered as a means to lower the dependency on oil-derived raw-materials, increase the use of renewable resources and reduce the use of water, energy and the production of CO2 emissions in the current chemical industry. However, although generally more sustainable and environmentally friendly, bioprocesses are normally not yet economically competitive. SILICO develops rational solutions for the optimization of microbes, targeted at the robust and cost-effective production of target compounds such as bio-fuels, food ingredients, chemical building blocks or biopolymers.
The central objective of this innovation action was to contribute to the move of the company from purely a service provider company into a product oriented company, working in the integrated development of bio-processes, from the in silico design of cell factories to the in vivo implementation by the company itself or in a joint-venture/partnership model. MAGYC was focused on the exploitation of SilicoLife’s core technologies by expanding its activities from in silico design to the actual genetic engineering, creating an opportunity to convert the company operations from a service provider to directly licensing processes ready to be used or validated in pilot plant scale. The innovation strategy plan that was created in this project evaluates the different opportunities to exploit the core technologies of the company considering the industrial biotechnology market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work developed in the MAGYC project was focus on three lines:
• Evaluation of high value compounds for biotechnological production and hosts
• Evaluation of the company core technologies and existing resources
• Definition of an innovation strategy plan and promotion of its implementation

These results are being used to support the development of new processes for high added-value products that will allow to generate IP on new biogolical and sustainable processes for the production of the small compounds that can be licensed out or used in joint ventures with industrial partners resulting in new royalty revenue streams for the company.

The outputs of the innovation efforts have been used to tackle additional opportunities, that resulted in the approval of an SME Instrument Phase 1 and in the first large collaboration H2020 project lead by SilicoLife.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The MAGYC project contributed with important know-how in market identification and IP landscape evaluation. Substantial advances in the company innovation were achieved with the definition of the product selection pipeline, a portfolio of high value compounds and the definition of an innovation roadmap.
The results of his work are being used by the company to continue its transition from a service provider to a product-oriented company.

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