Project description
A tiny bioreactor with outsized impact on microbial specialisation
Scientists are increasingly harnessing microbes to produce a variety of bioproducts, from polymers and biofuels to therapeutics and nutraceuticals. These powerful and productive miniature factories already specialise in making biological molecules. The key is to direct them to make what we want and in large quantities. This can take lots of time, energy and money. FGen will develop a tiny bioreactor that mimics large reactor conditions to help scientists get it right quickly and scale up easily. It will be integrated with technology to genetically modify strains, providing an impressive decrease in time and cost to enhance the European competitive position in this growing field.
Objective
Demand in bioproducts is increasing to answer the food needs required to feed the growing population. The current manufacturing of bioproducts- vitamins, amino acids, industrial enzymes- is heavily relying on the use of fossil fuels, whereas bio-based production can save water, energy all decreasing waste and costs. The use of efficient microbial strains allows bioproduct manufacturers to do so. The optimization process of the microbial strain is going under several cycles during which culture conditions are modified, and strains genetically modified, making the development long and costly. In addition, the scale-up is often complicated.
FGen has developed a nano-reactor mimicking large bioreactor conditions allowing a high throughput screening of microbial strains, easing the scale-up and speeding the screening of the family strain respectively, all decreasing time and development costs. This nano-reactor having shown promising results, FGen aims to compile it with an innovative method to genetically modified the strains. The combination of these two methods will grant large chemical companies and biotech to save up to 3 years and around €45 M for the development of an efficient strain that will be used in the manufacturing of bioproducts. The estimated segment market for FGen is of €20 bn.
With a time to market estimated at 3 years, FGen aims to act as service provider with external companies to generate revenues and to work on the development of its own strains to license or sold them. FGen estimates to generate a positive EBITDA of €5 M at 7 years (2025), and to grow-up to more than 100 employees.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryamines
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterials
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
4057 Basel
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.