Award details

'13TSB_SynBio' Genome-scale metabolic modelling to optimise high value microbial manufacturing

Reference	BB/L004437/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Stephen Oliver
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Cambridge
Department	Biochemistry
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	194,216
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/08/2013
End date	31/05/2015
Duration	22 months

Abstract

Methacrylic acid is the most widely used starting material to produce methylmethacrylate (MMA) for the manufacture of Perspex (also known as Lucite). MMA is a primary building block for the methacrylates industry and supports an extensive supply chain globally. All of this material is currently produced from petrochemical feedstocks. As a major player in the production of MMA (24% of total global production) one of the participating companies in this project, Lucite, is committed to developing a route based on renewable feedstocks. This project aims to engineer an industrial microbe to produce commercially viable amounts of a methacrylate precursor. The diversion of a large proportion of a microbe's resources to the generation of a product of no benefit to itself generally involves extensive realignment of its metabolic network. Scientists at the University of Cambridge will construct a computer model of the microbe's metabolism and use this in simulations to guide the engineering of the microbe by the third partner in this grouping, Ingenza. Together the three partners will optimise and scale-up the process.

Summary

We are beginning to see a shift in focus from of large-scale biotechnology away from biofuels (such as bioethanol and biobutanol) towards fine and bulk chemicals (e.g. succinic acid and propanediol) production. Methacrylic acid is the most widely used starting material to produce methylmethacrylate (MMA) for the manufacture of Perspex (also known as Lucite). MMA is a primary building block for the methacrylates industry and supports an extensive supply chain globally. All of this material is currently produced from petrochemical feedstocks. As a major player in the production of MMA (24% of total global production) one of the participating companies in this project, Lucite, is committed to developing a route based on renewable feedstocks. This project aims to engineer an industrial microbe to produce commercially viable amounts of a methacrylate precursor. The diversion of a large proportion of a microbe's resources to the generation of a product of no benefit to itself generally involves extensive realignment of its metabolic network. Scientists at the University of Cambridge will construct a computer model of the microbe's metabolism and use this in simulations to guide the engineering of the microbe by the third partner in this grouping, Ingenza. Together the three partners will optimise and scale-up the process. Both the general methodologies followed and specific results obtained will be of interest to biotechnologists, since they will be applicable to develop routes to many other bulk and speciality chemicals using renewable feedstocks. Success in a bulk chemical-based project of this type will help to promote the UK's aim to be at the leading edge of a Bio-based economy. Success in this project will also give impetus, where needed, to other chemical producers to engage in industrial biotechnology and the development of Bio-based processes. Furthermore, there will be extensive benefits throughout the supply chain associated with Lucite's activities, thus providing more general benefits across the UK economy.

Impact Summary

Methacrylic acid is the most widely used starting material to produce methylmethacrylate (MMA). MMA is a primary building block for the methacrylates industry and supports an extensive supply chain globally. All of this material is currently produced from petrochemical feedstocks. As a major player in the production of MMA (24% of total global production) Lucite is committed to developing a route based on renewable feedstocks. The success of this project will be of huge significance in helping Lucite to advance toward this goal. Furthermore, success in a bulk chemical-based project of this type will help to promote the UK's aim to be at the leading edge of a Bio-based economy. We are beginning to see a shift in focus from biofuels (bioethanol and biobutanol) towards fine and bulk chemicals (e.g. succinic acid and propanediol) production. Success in this project will give impetus, where needed, to other chemical producers to engage in industrial biotechnology and the development of Bio-based processes. Furthermore, there will be extensive benefits throughout the supply chain associated with Lucite's activities, thus providing more general benefits across the UK economy. Ingenza will exploit their proprietary approaches to engineering microbes and Lucite will lead the economic evaluation and process development work following on from this project. The collaboration will help both Ingenza and Lucite to build their capabilities in fermentation technology, molecular biology and metabolic modelling, and future scale up will be developed with NIBF (at an adjacent site at Wilton). It is envisaged that graduate and postgraduate employment opportunities will arise as this technology develops. We also expect UK academia to benefit significantly from the work carried out in this project. It will also inform and refine the industrial relevance of the metabolic modelling and simulations at which the Cambridge Systems Biology Centre (CSBC) is expert and which the Oliverlab has deployed in support of local Biotech companies. This will be CSBC's first opportunity to interact directly with a major chemicals manufacturer and this will provide valuable insights into the problems of scale-up and downstream processing. The wider academic community will also benefit from our dissemination activities. Clearly IP issues will need to be addressed first and this is vital for the competitiveness of Ingenza and Lucite, and for the establishment of revenue streams to the University. However, once these aspects have been addressed, we expect publication of results in respected peer-reviewed journals. Both the general methodologies followed and specific results obtained will be of interest to academia both in the UK and internationally, since they will be applicable to develop routes to many other bulk and speciality chemicals using renewable feedstocks.

Committee	Research Committee A (Animal disease, health and welfare)
Research Topics	Industrial Biotechnology, Microbiology, Synthetic Biology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Innovate UK (TSB) [2011-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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