The city of Cambridge and its Kendall Square have long been admired, studied, and even envied for to the high concentration of biotech companies in residence. Given the historical origins of the first recombinant DNA experiments on the “other coast,” the emergence of Kendall Square as a biotech hub was not inevitable. A (brief) historical review will point to key developments that accelerated the local biotech industry, including the foundational role of its local universities. Industry-academia partnerships were influential then, with academic spinouts – many from MIT – now a given, and with the talent cultivated in academic research labs always a necessary ingredient. As we work to foster the growth of the industrial bioeconomy, the Kendall Square story can reveal lessons to accelerate the transition.

Over my 40+ year career in industrial biotechnology, I’ve participated in quite a few fermentation projects, including several first-of-a-kind, totaling over a billion investment dollars. These projects had widely varying outcomes, ranging from miserable failure to great success. The first ones coincided with the early days of metabolic engineering and the last with emerging synthetic biology. Along the way, I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two - often the hard way. In recent years, I’ve shared as much as possible - the good, the bad, and the ugly - through publications, presentations, short courses, workshops, conferences, and consulting. Two case studies will be presented, both involving transfer of developed processes to manufacturing plants. The first was a costly, painful failure: the conversion of an active citric acid facility to astaxanthin production. The second was a remarkable success: the conversion of a mothballed amino acids facility to 1,4-butanediol production. Three basic principles were inspired by all of this: 1) begin with the end in mind; 2) mind the details; and 3) prepare for the unexpected.

This presentation will consist of two parts. The first part is lessons learned from my time as a researcher, research leader, board member, investor, and advisor in the industrial biotechnology world. The second part is some thoughts on future directions and opportunities for the field – some practical and some that are perhaps chimerical.

Biologicals for crop protection and plant and soil health are going mainstream after decades of being niche products. All categories of biological crop inputs - bioprotection, biostimulants and bionutrients - are growing at double digits annually, outpacing their synthetic chemical counterparts. At this pace, by 2040, biologicals will be as large as the chemical inputs market.  New technologies in artificial intelligence/machine learning, precision fermentation, formulation, and advanced genomics have improved the performance and cost effectiveness of microbial products more rapidly than was possible in the past. In addition, we have discovered only a small fraction of the world’s microbial biodiversity; nature still has much to offer for new products for plant health and pest management. There is a robust innovation ecosystem of startups and venture capital fueling new product development of microbial inputs. This talk will discuss the innovations driving the industry and factors necessary for successful company creation, commercial development and scaling.

BioMADE is a public-private partnership enabling US-based industrial biomanufacturing at all scales. BioMADE recently announced progress towards developing our pilot plant network that will be available to all companies scaling up their fermentation and purification technology or needing production at a smaller scale to seed their markets.  I will reflect on my experiences in scale up and piloting of innovative processes to bring new products to the market and how partnering with a contract manufacturing facility can improve your chances of success.

This presentation examines Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant's position within Europe's contract manufacturing network for industrial biotechnology. We'll showcase our technical capabilities and scale-up facilities while demonstrating how we collaborate within the European Ecosystem and the CDMO network to create effective pathways from pilot to commercial production, across a variety of product types. Through practical examples, we'll highlight the latest trends and initiatives for a successful road to market. Attendees will gain insights into CDMO partnering to accelerate commercialization timelines and optimize their scale-up journey.

Amyris is a leader in rapidly developing, scaling up, and delivering novel fermentation products. In this talk we will present case studies detailing how we used our internal research, piloting, and manufacturing facilities, in harmony with external manufacturing partners, to meet customer deliverables spanning from kilogram-scale samples to metric ton-scale product.  We will discuss the path to find the right size facility based on fermentation needs, and how we worked with contract manufacturers to link together primary recovery, purification, and chemistry unit operations needed to successfully meet final product quality.

Pivot Bio creates live microbial soil inoculant products optimized for high biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of nitrogen gas to ammonia even in fertilized fields. Farmers typically add tons of synthetic N fertilizer to crops because plant growth and yield is limited by availability of fixed nitrogen. Only 40-60% of applied fertilizer is incorporated into plants, with much of the remainder escaping into waterways or volatilizing as greenhouse gas. Pivot Bio’s products enable replacement of about 20% of nitrogen fertilizer for corn, wheat, and cotton crops. This presentation will describe challenges and successes in developing gene-edits, regulatory approvals, and processes for fermentation, formulation, preservation, and delivery of live microbes on farm. 

International Flavors and Fragrances, is a leading creator, innovator and manufacturer for food, beverage, health, homecare and scent solutions markets.  IFF products are sold globally to manufacturers of dairy, meat, beverages, snacks, savory, sweets, baked goods and other foods.  In addition, IFF is serving the specialty product markets in personal and home care such as functional formulation additives, the performance components in soaps and detergents, cleaning products and personal care products, perfumes and cosmetics.  Leveraging innovation across these market and product categories is driving sustainable growth and biotechnology takes center stage as enabling platform technology. Creating a better world at IFF means understanding how we can leverage our business, our performance and our partners to deliver a better tomorrow for people and planet.  
Overall, momentum is building for a transition to inherently more sustainable product and material choices manufactured in processes with reduced impact but without compromising the final product performance expected by consumers.  This is driving the continued need for material and product innovation but also the requirement to align with bioeconomy principles and to avoid undesired end-of-life material profiles such as microplastic accumulation.  
This presentation will update on the progress towards the commercialization of a new platform material technology through biorefinery integrated biomanufacturing.  The Designed Enzymatic Biomaterial™ platform is enabling sustainable material innovation with unique differentiated product performance across strategic IFF Health and Bioscience markets.  This presentation will highlight various commercial examples and an update on the EU based asset strategy and execution together with strategic partner in industrial markets.

Calysta produces FeedKind protein through a unique gas fermentation process.  The product is a non-GMO high-protein product with a complete amino acid profile and high digestibility, ideal for use in animal feeds and pet foods.  Our patented fermenter requires no animal or plant ingredients and can be placed anywhere in the world. Calysta’s gas-based fermentation decouples protein production from ever increasing requirements for agricultural land.  With our partners, Calysta has built two of the world’s largest fermenters with a combined capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year, and have recently begun commercial sales to aquaculture and pet food customers.  

Solugen’s Bioforge platform is redefining what’s possible in biomanufacturing by blending biology and chemistry to produce innovative, low-carbon solutions at commercial scale. In this session, Phil Wiemann (Sr. Director of Biotechnology & Bioprocessing) shares how Solugen scaled from lab prototype to full-scale production in under five years, what it takes to commercialize in a risk-averse industry, and how speed, simplicity, and versatility can unlock the potential of the bioeconomy.

Geno’s portfolio includes GenoTM BDO, Brontide, Avela, GenoTM Nylon, and Palm Kernal Oil (PKO) Alternatives. Each of these product lines employ a different commercialization strategy, with different types of partners and customers. Therefore, each will impose unique demands on the research, development, and engineering teams. This presentation will explore how Geno deploys its biomanufacturing capabilities to meet the needs of each product line, as they do not look just the same.

Biomanufacturing thrives on technical innovation, yet many ventures struggle to find balance between spending (too much) and generating revenue (too little) to sustain themselves.  As a three-year-old startup, we are also facing the challenge of achieving financial sustainability. In this talk, we discuss our efforts in trying to tackle this challenge, and share what we've learned. We’ll describe strategies to slash dependency on external capital - from managing R&D resources and designing product portfolio to securing early revenue via partnerships. We are not there yet, but we hope our experience helps to stimulate discussions on this important topic. 

The journey from lab/bench/pilot scale fermentation to a full production facility is both exciting and challenging. Jacobs is a world leader in engineering and providing solutions for novel fermentation process scale up to industrial scale manufacturing. In this session, Scott Rogers, Operations Management from Jacobs, will share an overview in executing some of the key decision points and opportunities as a construction project is born and develops. In the emerging economy of the 21st century, understanding the cost and schedule impacts of early decisions in the design of a facility can make or break the success of a company.

The petrochemical industry continues to face one of the longest and deepest downturns in history. Nonetheless, Braskem is committed to our 2050 carbon neutrality goal. Braskem is working to leverage our leadership role in the renewable chemicals and plastics space as well as our geographic feedstock advantage to expand the portfolio of I’m Green products as the core of our “Fly up to Green” strategy. To this end, Braskem has adopted a technology agnostic approach, using fermentation, chemical catalysis, and combinations thereof, to convert renewable feedstocks to value added products.

Innovation, entrepreneurship, and organization are all critical concepts for successful business development and commercialization. The same concepts play a key role in government research and development, as well as policy making and implementation. In this talk, I will give my perspective as a Department of Defense research scientist and program director for the over the last 16 years on how these concepts have shaped growing public-private partnerships in biotechnology for national security. I will also share insights from my time at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy implementing the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative. Lastly, I will offer my thoughts on what I view as the government’s role in growing U.S. biomanufacturing in the coming years to keep the bioeconomy on track as a driver of future industry.

In 2024, the European Commission outlined the importance of biomanufacturing to enable the establishment of a sustainable, circular economy in Europe. Hence, successful findings of the lab should be translated into industrial practice with high success rate and speed. Intrinsically, this requires particular skills and attitudes of academic researchers as well as a close network with industrial partners. The talk shares the strategies followed at IBVT for translating research to application. Illustrative examples will be provided.

BioMADE is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute whose mission is to enable bioindustrial manufacturing at all scales, develop technologies to enhance U.S. bioindustrial competitiveness, de-risk investment in relevant infrastructure, and expand the bioindustrial workforce to realize the economic promise of industrial biotechnology. This short talk will focus on how academic labs can leverage BioMADE to commercialize promising technology.

Non-model microbes have important phenotypes that could be leveraged for biotechnological applications, but they are usually genetically inaccessible due to a lack of genetic tools. We have implemented a host-agnostic approach to rapidly develop genetic toolboxes for diverse bacteria, including for organisms that can grow on inexpensive feedstocks such as breakdown products from plastics and lignocellulose and for organisms that are part of complex microbial communities. I will discuss how we can use these tools to expand the metabolic capabilities of organisms for applications such as consumption of breakdown products from lignocellulose and multiple modern plastics. 

Synthetic biology stands at a critical juncture, as recent years have seen numerous companies fail due to challenges associated with long development timelines and high production costs. While significant advancements have been made in strain engineering processes—such as automated strain design, CRISPR-Cas9, and high-throughput sequencing—the fermentation process remains a critical bottleneck. Fermentation workflows in biomanufacturing have seen little innovation over the past 30 years, resulting in low R&D and data throughput. This disparity in data velocity between strain engineering and fermentation process development fundamentally limits the overall speed of product commercialization. To address these limitations, Pow.bio has developed a continuous fermentation platform that significantly enhances the efficiency of bioprocess development. Our system enables rapid optimization of fermentation conditions and generates data 5–10 times faster than traditional fed-batch processes. We have integrated a digital twin software to predict system outcomes, automatically detect abnormalities, and improve process reliability. The continuous process also achieves higher volumetric productivity than conventional fed-batch, capable of producing 1 kg of the high-value organic acid mevalonolactone from a 2L bioreactor in 21 days. By accelerating fermentation data generation and increasing productivity, our approach aims to fundamentally reshape industrial biomanufacturing and contribute to a more sustainable and efficient future for the bioeconomy.

dsm-firmenich is a purpose-led, performance-based leader in fragrance, taste, health, nutrition, and bioscience. We harness biology to create brighter lives for all and a sustainable future. Effective use of predictive models is essential for developing disruptive bioprocess platforms that deliver sustainable and profitable performance at scale. At dsm-firmenich we make use of multiple metabolic modeling paradigms in a fit-for-purpose approach to guide strain engineering, process development, continuous improvement, and to inform technoeconomic and lifecycle analyses. At the heart each methodology is a genome-scale description of metabolism. Central to our philosophy is democratization of model use to maximize impact. As we move towards net-zero processing, user-friendly and flexible models of metabolism become essential for derisking investment, allowing us to benchmark experiments against theoretical limits and understand simultaneously the metabolic and economic implications of transitioning our processes to sustainable feedstocks.

Efficient downstream separation technologies are critical to successful scaling up of a bioprocess from lab to commercial. Development of microbial strains, fermentation, handling feedstocks diversity etc. already involve significant efforts in development and optimization of a novel bioprocess. Trying to choose or develop unproven recovery and purification technologies adds to the process risks to scaling up. A “scale-down” approach using industrially proven robust technologies like distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, crystallization and hybrid approaches for reaction and recovery will be discussed including lessons learned to achieve the best product purity and plant productivity at the lowest energy consumption.