Here are some of highlights (and a few low lights😉) from 2023, plus some areas to watch in 2024, from designer probiotics to livestock methane reduction.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is unsurprisingly top of mind but founders also cite new developments in bioinformatics, plant cell culture and continuous fermentation in our festive vox pop.
The consortium led by Solar Foods will produce whey proteins from bacteria fed with atmospheric carbon and hydrogen instead of sugar, decoupling production from agricultural land.
AgFunderNews catches up with two players in this nascent field: Dr. James Petrie at Australian startup Nourish Ingredients, and Dr. Yulin Lu at US startup Yali Bio.
Liberation Labs has secured a $25m government-backed loan to support its first commercial-scale precision fermentation facility in the US.
Precision fermentation might make commercial sense for high-value ingredients such as enzymes or lactoferrin. But what about low-value, high-volume ingredients such as casein proteins?
Motif FoodWorks CEO Dr. Mike Leonard has left the Boston-based foodtech firm, AgFunderNews has learned. His departure comes as the firm engages in a new round of layoffs.
Economies of scale will drive down the cost of precision fermentation. But advances in titer, productivity, and yield are equally important, says Synonym.
The race is on to replace tropical and animal fats with alternatives boasting superior functionality and a reduced environmental footprint. But will oil-producing microbes ever be a scalable solution?
“When it comes to soil carbon, there are more questions than answers in terms of whether it’s investable.” and other quotes from the sidelines of the World Agri-Tech and Future Food-Tech conferences in London last week.
From fungi to bacteriophages, biologicals have been developed to tackle everything from bacterial blight to fungal infections, says Santiago-based startup Exacta Bioscience. But many of them are not (yet) ready for prime time.
Perfect Day plans to sell its consumer brands so it can focus on its core business as a b2b supplier of whey protein via precision fermentation.
Norfolk Plant Sciences has completed a pre-market consultation process with the FDA for its antioxidant-packed GM purple tomatoes.
The bioeconomy will only take off if we can find a way to make the precision fermentation process more efficient, says Berkeley-based startup Pow.bio.
Impossible Foods has added Ginkgo Bioworks as a defendant in its patent infringement lawsuit against foodtech rival Motif Foodworks over meaty-tasting heme proteins.
The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has agreed to review a patent granted to Impossible Foods following a petition by Motif FoodWorks, which is being sued by Impossible for patent infringement.
Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, we can now engineer microbes to produce everything from enzymes to dairy proteins in fermentation tanks. But when does it make commercial sense?
Bond Pet Food is carving a distinct path in the alt protein space by engineering yeast to produce animal proteins for pet food.
Launched in September 2021 with $30 million in funding, microbiome startup Verb Biotics engineers ‘precision biotics’ for foods and supplements with ‘measurable effects that consumers can feel.’
Microbes have been the workhorses of recombinant protein production for years. But could the humble fruit fly give them a run for their money? asks Canadian startup Future Fields.
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