10150344SMARTY: Sustainable Methacrylate Advanced Research Technology for YeastActiveCollaborative R&DInnovate UKProject lead, Ingenza Ltd. will apply cutting edge engineering biology to advance the commercial utility of a non-conventional yeast with properties very suited to industrial use (e.g. rapid growth, feedstock versatility, high product tolerance) but severely lacking to date in the methods and genetic tools necessary for effective biotechnology applications. Project partner, Johnson Matthey (JM), possesses a deep knowledge of the market potential and needs, as well as process scale-up and engineering expertise to provide a compelling route to market for readily exploitable targets and a sound business plan for the project outputs. Through a multi-year collaboration that has investigated multiple industrial microbes and fermentation-based production methods, Ingenza and JM have identified this organism as offering complementarity as well as specifically beneficial attributes in comparison to more common industrial microbes. This project will enable the discovery and re-purposing of natural genetic regulators within the yeast, to facilitate the production and secretion of protein targets as well as enabling appropriate expression of biosynthetic enzymes for engineering biology approaches to prepare target molecules using biomanufacturing protocols established by Ingenza. Accordingly, the project brings disruptive innovation to the application of engineering biology in the UK. Ground-breaking technologies, including advanced engineering biology, ultra-high-throughput screening and machine learning-enhanced design of genetic sequences will augment natural yeast systems, to deliver the fermentation based manufacturing processes, meeting performance criteria including productivity, operational robustness and feedstock conversion efficiency. The project will deliver optimised production strains and validated, biomanufacturing processes suitable for scale-up and commercial manufacturing.