Ginkgo and Visolis Work on Bio-based Isoprene
Ginkgo Bioworks is partnering with US startup Visolis to improve the latter’s biomanufacturing process for isoprene and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Isoprene is a key monomer used in the production of synthetic rubber. Ginkgo said achieving the production of bio-based isoprene at scale “represents a significant step toward decarbonizing tire manufacturing.” The monomer is also used as an intermediate for making high-performance, lower-carbon SAF.
Under the collaboration, Ginkgo aims to use its “extensive” capabilities in strain engineering to improve upon one of Visolis’ existing microbial strains, while also working together to further optimize process efficiency.
According to Ginkgo, Visolis’ production efforts are geared towards providing molecules with higher energy density, lower viscosity and better compatibility with engines than traditional SAF processes. It said Visolis’ SAF has potential to work synergistically with these other processes to enable 100% sustainable fuel for aviation.
“As we strive to continue improving our technology towards commercial readiness, partnering with Ginkgo to accelerate our progress just makes sense. With their large codebase of strains and pathway expertise, which can shorten strain engineering cycles, as well as their scalable foundry capabilities, we believe we can work towards bringing our process to the next level,” commented Visolis founder and CEO Deepak Dugar.
Earlier this month, Ginkgo entered into a research partnership with Syngenta Seeds. Ginkgo will apply its protein engineering capabilities and proprietary ultra-high throughput screening technologies to complement and accelerate Syngenta’s efforts to design and develop innovative plant traits.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
