The bioeconomy is associated with the production of tangible and tangible things. However, some bio-based startups are using a more ephemeral tool in their biomanufacturing process: light.
Developers of light-based biomanufacturing technologies say their innovations could reduce the cost of precision fermentation by increasing yields and providing more control over industrial microbes in bioreactors.
Ignite Precision Fermentation
Precision fermentation is one of the most versatile and exciting avenues for scaling up biobased products in which microorganisms are used to cultivate large quantities of virtually any target material.
The end product of precise fermentation may be a large number of cells from a tasty traditional dairy breed (cultured proteins) or a unique chemical substance for which there is no real analog in nature (recombinant proteins), made by inserting genes from a variety of sources into the producing microorganisms.
Despite the bright future, applications of precision fermentation still face scale challenges. One of these is getting microbes to produce as much of the target substance as possible within their bodies. This is important because the more they produce with the same amount of inputs, the lower the cost of the final product.
Photosynthetic cells of protozoa
Primary Algae combines the use of LED lighting and photosynthetic algae to address cell factory productivity.
One of the services offered by the company is a bioprospecting platform that discovers photosynthetic microalgae that are also capable of producing specific chemicals useful in industry.
Finding algae that meet these two criteria is not an easy task, given that 99% of algae cannot grow in natural sunlight. Many species evolved in the ocean rather than on land where sunlight cannot reach the same intensity.
The company now has a unique library of species ready to be optimized for industrial-scale production of high-value chemicals in the light.
In Provectus' biomanufacturing process, light is more than just a passive element consumed by cells during the photosynthetic process of growth.
Provectus has developed bioreactors equipped with LED lights whose spectrum, intensity and blinking frequency can be adjusted by remote users.
By changing the type of light, the company can manipulate the algae's genes, turning them on and off to determine the kinds of chemicals they produce in their bodies.
Prolific machine uses light to control cell growth
Another obstacle to accurate fermentation biomanufacturing is the complexity of the biological process and the difficulty of controlling this complexity in an industrial setting.
Growth is a biological process that can cause problems for producers if left to nature. Precision fermenters may perfect their microbial production line only to find that two years have passed and random mutations have affected the productivity of the microbial population or the quality of the product.
Problems of genetic mutation and reduced product quality are the biggest issues for precision fermenters that use continuous microbial fermentation as a production method. In a continuous reactor, the medium - the liquid in which the bacteria grow - is constantly replenished. This is unlike batch production systems, where each production batch is closed and there is limited opportunity for any contaminants to disrupt the entire inventory.
Producers want predictable, consistent bio-based goods, and nature is usually happy to indulge in a little chaos. How can biomanufacturers better control microbial cultures? Prolific Machines believes that the targeted use of light may become the most cost-effective solution to this fouling problem.
Light can have a rapid impact on cellular processes such as gene expression, receptor activation and enzyme activity - all of which are linked to target chemicals for growth in the body.
Prolific has successfully developed a microbe that responds to changes in light by altering its internal receptors. Normally in nature, the cellular behavior of microbes changes in response to external chemicals. Multi-Product's custom-built industrial microbes are designed to change their behavior when exposed to different colors, intensities and patterns of light.
In a prolific system, biomanufacturers can use different kinds of light to determine what, where, and in what arrangement the microbes are producing. This allows the manufacturer to better control the behavior of the microbes in the bioreactor, allowing for more fine-tuning of the process of making chemicals and biomaterials.
For example, targeting light to a specific group of cells in a batch can pick out those cells and leave the rest alone, allowing small-scale alterations to be made. This could be useful for food technology entrepreneurs trying to obtain proteins with complex and diverse structures.
Brevel replaces gene editing with light
Light-based biomanufacturing is an emerging technology, but a growing number of precision fermentation companies are fine-tuning it.
One of these is Brevel, match, an Israeli company founded by three brothers, Yonatan, Ido and Matan Golan.Brevel grows and extracts proteins from photosynthesizing microalgae to create a neutral-flavored protein powder that is processed into an off-the-shelf animal meat substitute for consumers.In 2023, the company operated a 500-liter bioreactor and aims to reach 900,000 liters of capacity by 2025.
The way Brevel aruges utilizes light in microbial cultures may make its products more cost-competitive relative to cheaper farmed dairy and meat products. Like being prolific, Brevel aims to create the right interplay between light and fermentation to perfectly optimize its biomanufacturing process. Fermentation takes place in a dark environment, broken up by the targeted use of LED lighting.
Often, when precision fermenters want their microbes to be more efficient chemical producers, they rely heavily on genetic tools. However, Brevel says their light technology is powerful enough to replace genetic modification as a means of increasing protein production in microalgae. Not only does this open the door to larger product volumes, but it could also remove regulatory barriers to the sale of genetically modified foods in certain markets.
The main advantage of being able to use light patterns as a means of controlling the cell production process is that it promises to be more accurate than the methods currently used by producers.
Currently, precision fermentation companies typically place chemicals in bioreactors to try and guide the cell production process. However, the interaction between these chemical inputs and living cells is unpredictable.
This unpredictability ultimately leads to inflated production costs and, ultimately, an unscalable product. However, according to Brevel, the use of light can stimulate product growth and triple the profitability of the same batch of microalgae by encouraging more production.
In 2022, it partnered with vegan food manufacturer VGarden to develop a plant-based cheese to be launched globally after receiving regulatory approval for the new food product.Brevel itself will be launching its own products starting in 2025.
Economic solutions for food technology
LED lighting is relatively inexpensive compared to other potential biotech control tools, such as chemicals and gene editing.
Thus, using the Language of Light to control biomanufacturing may become a cheaper and more intuitive way of working for bioproducers, who often have to rely on trial and error to refine and maintain their industrial processes.
The cost savings offered by light-based forms of microbial manipulation compared to fermented cosmetics and pharmaceuticals will have the greatest impact in the food technology sector.
One of the biggest expenses of precision fermentation is the nutrient-rich liquid medium that is the backbone of the process. This is the substance that sustains the growth of industrial microorganisms in industrial bioreactors and the production of chemical products.
Manufacturers in the pharmaceutical and beauty industries can often recoup their costs by selling at high prices. Consumers don't mind paying high prices for small quantities of niche beauty and health products.
However, edible protein is an entirely different consumer proposition; it is an everyday supermarket commodity that must compete with much cheaper dairy products and proteins made from industrially reared animals. Precision fermented meats still cost much more than regular proteins, putting pressure on the industry to find innovations to bring them down to competitive levels.
Light-based microbial culture may be in its early stages, but the number of startups using led in biomanufacturing is on the rise. While this may seem like the esoteric route to biomanufacturing, light is an abundant, cheap, and safe resource, which means it can help enable a more streamlined biomanufacturing process.
