2023 Project Updates
Technology & Innovation Projects
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Member team | MicroByre
This project is leveraging a previously un-engineered bacterium that consumes several unrefined byproducts from the dairy industry to generate a cheap and sustainable alternative to displace petroleum-based propylene as the feeds feedstock used to make acrylic acid. Micobyre has successfully completed fermentation testing internally and at Pow.bio, utilizing acid whey streams from the dairy industry.
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Member team | Agri-Tech Producers and University of Akron
This project is exploring combining a safer, bio-based alternative to carbon black filler powder with polymers made by the enzymatic epoxidation of a soybean oil and linseed oil-based bio-resin, in order to create thermoset hybrid bio-composites. AgriTech’s bio-base filler was incorporated at various levels into norbornylized and non-norbornylized seed oils to fabricate novel hybrid bio-composites. University of Akron is in the process of measuring the thermal and mechanical properties of these lightweight, sustainable materials which will be compared to commercially available resin.
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Member team | Amyris
Issues associated with product toxicity, feedback inhibition, and product degradation often impact the economic feasibility of biobased products. Amyris is working with BioMADE to develop a novel method for real time removal of products from fermentation broth at the pilot scale. This technology is proving successful in helping to improve the key performance indicators for a number of compounds, and may ultimately help the BioMADE ecosystem improve the economics of existing processes and help the bring additional products to market.
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Member team | General Probiotics
This project gains insight into fermentation and downstream processing for ProAspis, a safe, genetically modified bacteria that can release antimicrobial peptides to preferentially kill pathogens in chickens and help farmers raise clean animal protein. In September 2022, FDA granted General Probiotic a Food Use Authorization for their product. BioMADE support has enabled General Probiotics to produce and deliver product to farms across the US for testing.
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Member team | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The project team has developed a process-intensified separation technology to recover succinic acid using a redox-electrodialysis (redox-ED) platform, which involves simultaneous continuous up-concentration of succinate and removal of inorganic salts and neutral species. This work was published in Advanced Functional Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202211645) and a provisional patent was filed. The UIUC team has also developed an end-to-end pipeline for succinic acid production at an industrially relevant scale using Issatchenkia orientalis and showed that this process is financially viable and can reduce life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 34–90% relative to fossil-based production processes based on TEA/LCA. A manuscript describing will be submitted for publications in the near future.
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Member team | Georgia Institute of Technology
A team from Georgia Tech working with input from BioMADE members has developed a manufacturing facility and supply chain simulation platform to evaluate and stress test bioindustrial supply chains regarding risks, cost, productivity, and other performance metrics of interest to firms in the industry. This tool can be used to predict where to adjust manufacturing capacity, inventory levels, sourcing, and supply chain design to better ensure a trusted, secure, resilient, competitive, and sustainable end-to-end bioindustrial supply chain at the product, product family, and firm level. Such a decision support capability can be of direct use by firms in the bioindustrial manufacturing industry and, in collaboration with Federal, State, and other levels of government, can serve as a useful tool in building a trusted, secure, resilient, competitive, and sustainable end-to-end bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem for the Nation.
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Member team | Checkerspot and University of California, Davis
This project has completed year one of a two-year program assessing the feasibility of small, 0.5L pressurizable, stainless steel reactors manufactured by The H.E.L. Group, to serve as a predictive tool for more costly and capital intensive pilot and demo scale reactors typically used to assess strain and process readiness prior to proceeding to manufacturing scales. Year one has established good concordance between strain performance in H.E.L. reactors versus reactor scales ranging from 6 to 4,000L across four different sites, as assessed by multiple, key performance indicators (KPIs). Year two will focus on assessing strain performance producing a different product class than was assessed in year one across the same sites and scales. In addition, limitations to the current H.E.L. system utilized in this study will be addressed and mitigated to further the utility of tools such as these, across the BioMADE community.
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Member team | Superbrewed Food, Lockheed Martin
This project has demonstrated the production of novel magnetic nanoparticles via the doping with various transition metals into a bacterial production system previously used to make iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles. This work will help facilitate the production of physically and biologically tailored nanoparticles for use in a wide range of application testing.
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Member team | University of California, Berkeley, R2DIO, Antheia, Geno, Amyris, Gingko Bioworks, Oobli, Demetrix
This project will elevate the commercial readiness of bio-products throughout the bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem by benchmarking performance and best practices in product development. By making R&D performance more measurable, this project will make the commercial readiness of bioproducts and capabilities of the bioindustrial manufacturing workforce easier to understand and improve. Ultimately, it will enable synthetic biology companies to understand achievable metric scores and to accelerate their adoption of best practices, in turn accelerating product development and compressing time to manufacturing readiness throughout the industry. The team has completed definition of metrics for benchmarking R&D operations and established framework for collecting performance data and computing metric scores. BioMADE member companies participating in the project have begun capturing and recording performance data, continuing for the next 18 months.
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Member team | Valerian Materials, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, University of Minnesota, Scientific Bioprocessing
This project is optimizing the fermentation and downstream processing of Betamethylvalerolactone (BMVL), eventually incorporating it into sustainable and bio-derived elastomers, foams, and adhesives.
Optimization of fermentation conditions to produce BMVL and the use of a glucose source derived from waste material has been conducted at NCERC, utilizing equipment donated by the Scientific Bioprocessing Insititute (SBI). UMN has initiated efforts to convert BMVL to polymeric products.
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Member team | Geno, University of Illinois
Using cell recycling, this project is exploring, researching, testing, and validating methods to improve fermentation process yields and productivities from bacterial biocatalysts, thereby reducing the operational costs of industrial fermentation processes. Geno has completed an extensive review of existing reutilization strategies and identified a list of key performance metrics for evaluation of reutilization strategies.
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Member team | Tandem Repeat
This project will scale the upstream and downstream processes for producing Squitex. This sustainable, high-performance fiber yields superior mechanical, chemical, durability, and recyclability benefits when blended with natural fibers. Tandem Repeat has completed fermentation trial up to a 1,200 L scale, identified improvements to the DSP methods for purification of the protein, and produced material for wet spinning fibers with increasing levels of Squitex content.
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Member team | University of California, Davis, Boston University, University of Texas-Austin, Johns Hopkins University, University of Georgia, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
This project enables collaboration among researchers at diverse locations with extensive experience in coronaviruses, glycoprotein production, modeling, characterization, and simulation. Work advances innovative technologies for the distributed manufacturing of sarbecovirus spike protein variants and their subunits in heterologous protein expression systems. The team has made progress on RBD and Spike HexaPro production in different production platforms, as well as the production, purification, and distribution of anti-SARS-CoV monoclonal antibodies. Characterization and glycan analysis of samples, molecular modeling, and the creation of a software platform for sharing data across organizations have been initiated.
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This project brings together scientists and engineers from industry and academia to develop and demonstrate pilot-scale manufacturing of several lipid adjuvants to support coronavirus vaccine production. Using microbial fermentation and domestic plant extraction processes, this research helps remediate unsustainable supply chain bottlenecks for vaccine adjuvants. UCB researchers have advanced the growth and processing of plant material and microbial production and pathways to produce and isolate adjuvant compounds of interest. Amyris is conducting scale up and tech transfer activities for their adjuvant process.
Education & Workforce Development Projects
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Member team | University of Hawai‘i, Hilo, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, Solano Community College
The ALAKAʻI project establishes a Hawaiian bioeconomy academy to develop industry-relevant training for delivery in Hawaiʻi and across the United States. The project is focused on preparing high-impact professionals in the bioeconomy – including operators, technicians, scientists, managers, policy makers, regulators, investors, or advocates – by providing necessary multi-disciplinary expertise and training. The project draws on traditional Hawaiian and Pacific Island cultural perspectives to provide insights and guiding principles for effective sustainability.
During the first year of this project, the Hilo team completed industry interviews and obtained feedback on meaningful bioeconomy professional education. This feedback was incorporated into the first ALAKAʻI Academy held in Hilo July 2022, which was attended by 20 participants. The lessons learned from the first ALAKA’I Academy will be incorporated into the July 2023 workshop, with an emphasis on building capacity through community and cultural engagement.
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Member team | University of Georgia, Albany State University
This project promotes access to advanced training and equipment for bioindustrial manufacturing to provide more students the experience needed for careers in the bioindustry. A primary goal of this project is to develop a cost-effective DIY bioreactor with all the functionality of a commercially available, far more expensive bioreactor. By providing new bioreactor training instruments students can obtain in-depth knowledge and understanding of various parts and their functions and develop troubleshooting skills in upstream biomanufacturing – a skill employers have identified as essential. This project delivers industry-driven workforce training in sensors and other industry-standard equipment such as mass flow controllers, motors, off-gas analysis, and bioreactors.
The BEST team hosted the first project workshop in August 2022 with 12 participants and will host an additional 12 participants again in August 2023 at the University of Georgia, Athens. The blueprint for the DIY bioreactor is nearly complete and will be available in Fall 2023. In addition, 11 of the 13 training videos centered on bioindustrial manufacturing skills have been completed.
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Member team | STEMconnector, University of California, Davis
This project activities were focused on raising awareness of bioindustrial career pathways, industry-based workforce needs, and the social and global impact that bioindustrial manufacturing can bring – to individuals, to educational institutions, to the national economy, and to our overall quality of life. The targeted outcomes of this project include the identification of skills and competency gaps in workforce development and the development of tools for educating the future workforce.
The team completed a national-level Bioindustry Environmental Scan through two Innovation Lab events (hosted in California and Georgia), co-designed and developed tools for assessing workforce skill and competence gaps, created a web-based Gap Analysis Tool, and produced a dynamic Ebook on Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design. The Bioindustrial Manufacturing Ebook has been widely disseminated to over 10,000 STEM professionals and will serve as an important document for career pathway development and awareness of training opportunities.
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UES and BTCI are leading a project to establish summer camps for underserved communities in Dayton, Ohio that support education and workforce career pathway development in bioindustrial manufacturing. This program delivers much needed exposure to biomanufacturing as well as experiences that raise students in the greater Dayton area’s interest and self-efficacy related to the biomanufacturing industry. The project goals include (i) enhancing biotechnology and biomanufacturing awareness in local, underserved communities, (ii) educating students on related career and education opportunities, and (iii) bridging the gap between current curricula and industry-identified skills.
UES is finalizing the curriculum for weeklong introductory and advanced summer camps to be offered for the first time in Summer 2023. These camps will cover basic upstream biomanufacturing techniques, including operational skills with tabletop fermenters, as well as providing information about academic pathways to biomanufacturing careers.
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Member team | Signature Science, Aclid, Rice University
This project is centered on creating a Biosecurity Sequence Screening Training Course for Bioengineers that is designed to increase awareness of the proactive safety measures needed to sustainably grow the bioindustrial manufacturing sector.
The project team piloted their web-accessible introductory level course covering basic biosecurity practices with 24 participants at the end of March 2023. The course provided case studies and practical, real-world scenarios coordinated through web-facilitated experiences that are designed for active learning. The course will be available online as an asynchronous, self-guided experience for BioMADE members in Fall 2023.
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Member team | University of Texas, Austin and Austin Community College
This project raises awareness of biomanufacturing job opportunities by introducing students to biomanufacturing during their freshman year of college, as part of a newly developed academic track in UTA’s Freshman Research Initiative (FRI). Project efforts are enhanced by building shared training and education pathways between the 4-yr and 2-yr colleges. In partnership with local biomanufacturing companies, Biomanufacturing FRI students are exposed to relevant topics, develop needed skills, and build pathways to industry internships. The goal of this project is to increase the number and diversity of students graduating with interest and appropriate skills to pursue a biomanufacturing career, ultimately helping meet the increasing need for a diverse workforce of skilled employees who can participate in a scaled bioeconomy.
The team launched the first cohort of the Biomanufacturing FRI Stream in 2022, providing experience-based learning and research opportunities to 21 first year college students. The FRI’s second cohort, for Spring 2023, was doubled to 40 students in the Biomanufacturing FRI Stream. Importantly, participation in the FRI is based on student self-identified interest and independent choice for track selection, demonstrating a marked increase in demand for experiential learning in biomanufacturing. For Cohort 2, access to industry-based bioprocessing and bioreactor training equipment has been established in the FRI in close partnership with Austin Community College.
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Member team | North Carolina State University
This project will bring students and workers up to speed to help them develop the needed experience and expertise to be effective and successful in the bioindustrial manufacturing sector through three new courses: (i) Core Competencies in Molecular Biotechnology, focused on recombinant gene cloning and its downstream applications, (ii) Fundamentals of Bioindustrial Manufacturing, designed for professionals, which covers bioindustrial product classes and uses, host systems, upstream and downstream processing, product testing, and, (iii) Training in the Nexus of Biotechnology and Society, which is focused on public engagement, responsible research and innovation, science communication.
To date, approximately 60% of the project objectives towards the development of instructional materials are completed. We anticipate that course completion, evaluation, and access will be achieved in the Fall 2023.
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Member team | BioBuilder, Ars BioTechnica, East Tennessee State University, Daicel Arbor Bioscience
This project is focused on building awareness and momentum for biomanufacturing careers nationwide, including in the hard-to-reach rural and inner-city high schools. By simultaneously training students and celebrating their achievements, this project is designed to increase awareness of biomanufacturing among community stakeholders, including parents of participating students, high school teachers, college admissions officers, and relevant local businesses.
BioBuilder launched the Student Ambassador Program and students who previously participated in other BioBuilder programs were trained to share their knowledge and experience and serve as peer mentors. In February 2023, 16 students were onboarded as student ambassadors. In addition, 40 BioBuilder teams have been established that are adopting the new Biomanufacturing Track that was created as part of this BioMADE EWD project.
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Member team | University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Forsyth Technical Community College, Genome Insights
This project inspires students by putting cutting-edge nanobiotechnologies like hand-held DNA sequencers and scanning electron microscopes into their hands to reveal the hidden and powerful universe of soil microbes. By "seeing" that millions of microbes live in every handful of soil, students come to understand the powerful impact microbes have on society and the environment. They also learn about the almost limitless possibilities to leverage microbes in bioindustrial manufacturing. To maximize the impact of the program, it also includes “Teaching the Teachers” workshops so educators can carry the message to a broad audience of students at community colleges, professional development sites, and to veterans transitioning to civilian life. Ultimately, this project inspires a future generation of highly skilled bioindustrial manufacturing workers to develop solutions to key social challenges.
The project team has delivered two, 2-day workshops to inspire educators and veterans returning to the civilian workforce (in collaboration with the Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina) to explore and share opportunities in bioindustrial manufacturing. Nine teachers participated as part of the “Teach the Teachers” program. Each of the teachers instructs approximately 90 students per semester and has the potential to inform over 1,600 students each year for awareness and career pathways in Bioindustrial manufacturing. Lesson plans and instructional materials generated in this project will be available to BioMADE members in Fall 2023.
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Member team | BioBuilder, Worcester Public Schools, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Twist Bioscience
A major objective of this project is to launch an after-school program focused on training students for biomanufacturing careers. This program is designed to be credit-bearing, industry-informed, and based on the successful Innovation Pathways framework through Worcester Public Schools. The developed curriculum feeds into relevant certificate and credentialing programs for post-secondary institutions.
In addition to developing an industry-responsive biomanufacturing curriculum, this project enables students to further advance their education through local institutes of higher education, build relationships with local industries for work-based learning opportunities, and inspire high school students to see biomanufacturing as a career path for themselves.
There are currently 15 students enrolled in the program pathway and a waiting list for additional students in the queue to enter. Two technical courses for the Innovation Pathway Program (IPP) have been completed including ‘Foundations in Modern Biotechnology’ and ‘Applications of Modern Biotechnology’.
4S (Safety, Security, Sustainability, and Social Responsibility) Projects
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Member team | Johns Hopkins University and Ginkgo Bioworks
The project team is currently developing policy recommendations for the US government and BioMADE regarding safety, security, sustainability, and social responsibility in biomanufacturing (4S), drawing on the insights of BioMADE members. Results from expert interviews will be synthesized into an actionable report to help prioritize and guide the integration of 4S into BioMADE activities and projects.
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Member team | Bluestem Biosciences and National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC)
The project team is promoting opportunities for anaerobic fermentation to grow the Bioeconomy in the Midwest through ongoing awareness and advocacy activities and as well as an open-source computational resource to promote accessibility and sustainability. Bluestem is building BlueSTEAM Technology to serve as a digital twin to NCERC fermentation capability and perform technoeconomic analysis on anaerobically feasible molecules, and both teams are engaging key beneficiaries.
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Member team | Tandem Repeat and University of Georgia
The project is assessing public perception of biomanufacturing through data collection and analysis based on surveys and hands-on interaction with a product or prototype. Results will help inform framing of biomanufacturing to consumers. The team is currently producing Squitex-based masks for workshop participants as well as developing large-scale survey instruments.