Boston, United States – Manus, the world’s leading bioalternatives scale-up platform, today announced a project to advance intracellular product recovery from yeast systems. This research includes support from BioMADE, a public-private partnership focused on advancing bioindustrial manufacturing and accelerating the development of innovative biomanufacturing technologies.    

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Researchers from Manus will work with researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, specifically Dr. Hal Alper and his Alper Lab as part of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, to engineer the yeast cell wall and other cellular properties to enhance intracellular product recovery. This innovative approach aims to simplify downstream  processing, reduce or eliminate the use of harmful solvents, and minimize the mechanical energy required for product separation and recovery.

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“By addressing the bottleneck of intracellular product recovery, we are unlocking new opportunities for the commercialization of valuable bioproducts and driving sustainable innovation,” says Christine Santos, Chief Technology Officer at Manus.

Tackling a major bottleneck

The project is expected to significantly enhance the ability of biomanufacturers to commercialize a wide range of bioproducts that accumulate intracellularly, including lipids, vitamins, pigments, proteins, biosurfactants, and polysaccharides.  

The developed solutions will be rigorously tested and refined at Manus’ BioFacility in Augusta, Georgia, ensuring their practical applicability and scalability for commercialization.

“We are excited to tackle a major bottleneck in the downstream processing of many bio-produced products that currently has high capital and energy costs,” says Hal Alper.

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As the world’s leading scale-up platform, Manus has scaled and commercialized multiple products through its BioAcceleratorand BioManufacturing Programs, enabling companies across industries to replace existing ingredients, materials, and chemicals with bioalternatives, increasing supply security while reducing environmental impacts.