Five projects focused on innovation will advance bioreactor design and development, supported by Schmidt Futures

TWIN CITIES, MN | NEW YORK, NY- Today, BioMADE announced five new projects focused on solving current bioindustrial manufacturing research and adoption gaps through the advancement of bioreactor technology. With a commitment of $10.5M in funding, these projects will work across engineering, hardware development, and scalability to eliminate the barriers preventing the acceleration of a robust bioeconomy.

Improving the design and functionality of bioreactors, the vessels in which products are manufactured using biological technologies, is a critical step in paving further bioindustrial progress and widespread development. Improved bioreactors will ultimately enable production of new and diverse materials that could develop sustainable or novel bioproducts, reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, and increase access to food systems.

Last June, BioMADE issued this special Project Call on advancing bioreactor design and development thanks to support from Schmidt Futures. Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt that brings talented people together in networks to prove out their ideas and solve hard problems in science and society.  The EBRC served as fiscal sponsor to facilitate this Project Call. 

“We’re thrilled to launch these new projects focused on bioreactor innovation,” said Melanie Tomczak, Ph.D., BioMADE Chief Technology Officer. “Together, these projects will make significant improvements in bioreactor design. By increasing the technological capabilities of bioreactors, creating new controls and functions, reducing costs, and increasing their scalability, they will help spur bioindustrial manufacturing and the future of the bioeconomy in the U.S. We are grateful to Schmidt Futures for their vision and support of this program.”

“A new era of biology can change the way we produce food, fuel, materials, clothing, chemicals, and products beyond current imagination” said Mary Maxon, Ph.D., Executive Director of BioFutures, Schmidt Futures. “But for this new era to materialize, we need to support advanced manufacturing sciences and engineering required to convert scientific discoveries from lab to market. We hope these projects and continued work will advance our efforts to ensure people can reap the benefits of a thriving bioeconomy.”

Ranging from theoretical to experimental, the projects will be developed by BioMADE member organizations working across fields and industries from laboratory pilots to commercial scale. The projects aim to overcome current engineering constraints for a variety of areas including the conversion of waste-based feedstocks into Vitamin A, the control of modularized bioproduction plants, and the development of commercially important products like fatty alcohols and triacetic acid lactone. These projects aim to result in public and economic benefits, such as new job creation, a diverse workforce, distributed bioproduction based on regional biomass, and revitalized rural areas.

The bioeconomy is poised to revitalize U.S. manufacturing; however, the bioindustrial manufacturing development remains underfunded and under-explored. These deficits equate to stalled progress in attaining a more resilient supply chain, the creation of new jobs, and progress toward a net-zero economy. By the end of the decade, the bioeconomy could be worth as much $30 trillion according to information synthesized into a figure in the 2022 strategy from Schmidt Futures. BioMADE and Schmidt Futures are committed to ensure that its promise is realized to benefit humanity, broadly. 

Bioreactor Innovation Projects

• Development of a Continuous Taylor Vortex Fermentor-Extractor-Separator: By integrating product extraction and separation in the bioreactor itself, researchers will provide a flexible, modular, and redeployable bioreactor design.
  Member: Iowa State University
  
  
• Modeling and Mimicking of Bioreactor Gradients to Predict Scale-Up Performance: This project focuses on developing and validating workflows to predict the performance of oil-producing fermentations at demo-scale based on laboratory experiments.
  Member: Geno
  
  
• Modular Biofilm Reactors to Convert Waste-Based Feedstocks to Vitamin A: Project partners will advance critical bioreactor automation, next-gen sensing, and novel continuous-flow separation methods to scale-up Capra’s biofilm reactors into an automated pilot plant.
  Member team: Capra Biosciences, Boston University, Next Rung Technology
• Product Quality Sensors for Machine Learning (ML)-Guided Process Optimization and Control of Modularized Production Plants: This team of academic and industry researchers will create a generalizable machine learning framework for optimization and control of bioreactors to reduce resources needed to design new processes and improve product quality throughout production.
  Member team: Iowa State University, Novozymes
  
  
• Project MONDE: In order to minimize or eliminate the inhibitory impact of certain recombinant products, this project will evaluate a modification to both the design and operation of an aseptic production fermentor.
  Member team: Amyris, Sudhin Biopharma

About BioMADE:
BioMADE is securing America’s future through biomanufacturing innovation, education, and collaboration. By harnessing the power of biology, BioMADE and its 180+ member organizations are strengthening American competitiveness and creating a more robust and resilient supply chain. BioMADE is also building a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce to ensure the workforce is prepared and ready to fill new jobs. BioMADE is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute established by the U.S. Department of Defense. Learn more by visiting biomade.org.

About Schmidt Futures:
Founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative that brings talented people together in networks to prove out their ideas and solve hard problems in science and society.

Schmidt Futures is proud to support these projects through BioFutures, a program that accelerates the translation of bioeconomy research into public and economic benefits in an effort to promote positive social uses of technology. The BioFutures program aims to contribute to the creation of a future, streamlined, circular US bioeconomy where innovative ideas are fostered in an equitable and coordinated R&D ecosystem and are successfully transitioned from the laboratory into the real world for public well-being, economic benefit, resilience, and sustainability.

To learn more about our method and the diverse types of capital and tools that we deploy, visit: https://www.schmidtfutures.org