Ingenza is thrilled to have received support for its Unleashing Putida: Biobased Methacrylates for a Sustainable Future project with the award of a grant from Innovate UK and Eureka. This ground-breaking research is being undertaken in collaboration with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Japan and Mitsubishi Chemical Methacrylates, UK, and aims to accelerate the commercialisation of Pseudomonas putida as a host for the biobased and sustainable production of methyl methacrylate, plus provide enabling tools in microbial screen selections. Biobased methacrylate is targeted to become a realistic alternative to existing fossil fuel-derived plastics.
The grant will support Ingenza as it builds on its 20 years of process development and scale-up expertise to create a commercially viable P. putida bio-manufacturing pipeline. This organism has the potential to become an ideal host for the large-scale production of biobased methacrylate, meeting the required performance criteria for organic product tolerance, productivity, operational robustness and feedstock conversion. With their extensive know-how, experts at Ingenza will use the funding to engineer an optimised P. putida strain and create a scalable fermentation protocol. In parallel, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation will engineer a high throughput cell sorting protocol for the reliable identification of superior cell performance, aiding the efforts of Ingenza’s researchers.
Dr Ian Fotheringham, Managing Director at Ingenza, commented: “This recognition and support from Innovate UK, NEDO and Eureka is vital for funding our goal of making large-scale, sustainable bio-manufacturing processes a true alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The development of a commercially attractive, large-scale production pathway for methyl methacrylate could be a game changer for the future of synthetic materials.”