Demise of the Diva: The New Organisms Are Workhorses Not Show Ponies, but They Do the Most Amazing Tricks.

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... What we would like to train our focus on is two-fold, the advances in systems biology — elsewhere, you’ve heard it described as synthetic biology, but it’s really all a part of systems biology, which is to say that we are focusing on the biology of an entire system and not just the optimization of a single component in that system, using the new biology toolkit.

In looking at developing an advancing a system, we are perhaps going to measure yield, that’s been the traditional yardstick in measuring value — yield, yield, yield is to industrial biotechnology as location, location, location is to real estate.

But there’s rate, too. If I can make it faster, I can get more product out of my existing biorefinery, regardless of whether yield has improved or not.

And there’s the process conditions as well — the lower the temperature range at which I can get my reactions, the less I have to heat up and cool my broth and stress my organism.

In the end, where the industry is moving is the Demise of the Diva, and by that we mean an organism that can do amazing things, make amazing products and with exotic rates, titers and yields as well, but who require an equally exotic support system of trainers, nutritionists, handlers, managers, flunkies, gofers, advisors, chefs, chauffeurs and so forth.

As Novozymes’ Brian Brazeau put it this week, “there are high performance organisms that will do the job, and of course the economics are always good, but the bigger question for ethanol producers is, ‘can I trust that my plant will run, that this innovation will tolerate the upsets, that are natural occurrences when you run at the scale we do, and that this will push through and deliver for me, despite the pH, temperature variations and contaminations that are going to occur at this scale. Will I be able to run the plant my way, the yeast I want, the goals I set, will I be able to quickly switch between options when I see a change in market conditions. Can I have it the way we need it, and not have this organism get sick on me, or underperform?”

3. Show me that you’re reducing my hidden costs, such as the nutrients I am feeding to yeast to keep them healthy.

The answers are coming from integrated platforms of enzymes and yeasts, and that’s why it’s not only interesting from a revenue and market share POV that Novozymes has entered into the yeast field, but a pointer to the direction that all of the majors are taking. Why are we seeing the majors, each of them, delivering pretty strong annual innovations on an annual basis? Because they are exploring not only what an organism can do, but what a system can do.

As Brazeau explains it, “corn has all of the nutrients we need, why add extra? Let’s use what’s there, and what we have to do is design the yeast to use the nitrogen, for example, that is available in corn.

Brazeau notes, “I think in our industry that we have a group the is very passionate about what they do, they know they are doing something important, that biofuels are important, and when we get together, everyone is very open to new technologies that will help them. For us, we have to earn the credibility through service, and build that trust. Because advanced biology is still pretty new. Yes, brewing and baking are ancient industries, but that was the artisan era and at artisan scale. Now, we are bringing forward a new engineering mindset, not only in the industrial scale of the plants, but right down to the organism and the system within which the organism lives. If we take forward that engineering mindset, we are going to ask more holistic questions, where it’s not just about individual amino acids but whole systems. Sequencing and other tools are giving us new abilities to move beyond yield and towards value.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: According to Jayne Kalbfleisch, technical development manager at Lallemand Biofuels and Distilled Spirits, one factor that may be robbing an ethanol plant of yield is stressed yeast. “The stress of your biorefinery or ethanol really depends on yeast cells. When yeast gets stressed, bad things happen,” she told a panel during the Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo on June 12.

Kalbfleisch said that recognizing stressed fermentation is important, and there are several indicators that may point to stress. “Initially you might see it as an increase in drop glucose,” she said. Other indicators are an Increases in lactic acid, acitic acid climbing late in fermentation, or drop glycerol oscillating across the fermentation process. She also said using a microscope to observe yeast cells and noting the appearance of the cells can help recognize under-performing yeast. An abundance of longer, “sausage-shaped” yeast cells may indicate a stressor is present in fermentation. READ MORE