Manus, The BioAlternatives Company®, in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin, has successfully completed a BioMADE-sponsored initiative aimed at improving the efficiency and sustainability of industrial yeast fermentation processes. This project, led by Hal Alper, PhD, from UT Austin’s McKetta department of chemical engineering, focuses on engineering yeast to autonomously disrupt their cell walls at the conclusion of fermentation, a method known as programmed lysis.
This innovative approach significantly simplifies downstream processing by lessening the dependence on energy-intensive mechanical disruption and eliminating the need for hazardous solvent-based extraction methods. The outcome is a reduction in production costs and enhanced sustainability for a variety of bioalternative products, including lipids, proteins, vitamins, pigments, biosurfactants, and polysaccharides.
The research team has demonstrated this technology at a pilot scale of 300 liters for two industrially relevant yeast strains. Notably, in Yarrowia lipolytica, engineered strains achieved over a 50 percent reduction in mechanical separation energy requirements, while in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, autolysis was successfully accomplished in a production strain. This advancement marks a significant transition from laboratory demonstration to integrated pilot operation.
According to Christine Santos, PhD, chief technology officer at Manus, “Downstream processing is one of the largest hidden costs in biomanufacturing, and it heavily influences whether a bioalternative can compete on price. By engineering yeast to disrupt their own cell walls, we reduce cost, energy, and complexity, which widens the range of products that can be made economically and sustainably at scale.” This progress not only enhances the economic viability of domestic biomanufacturing but also supports the use of abundant, low-cost American feedstocks.
Alper further emphasizes the unique collaboration between academic and industrial sectors, stating, “This work uniquely combined academic and industrial settings to take bench-scale discoveries and more rapidly translate them to higher technology readiness. This technology finally helps to address the challenge of producing cheaper intracellular products that traditionally require high-cost separations and more laborious process steps.” The implications of this research extend across various products manufactured within microbial cells, reinforcing the potential for a more efficient and sustainable biomanufacturing landscape.
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