Applied Metabolic Engineering of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae for the Manufacturing of Diverse Valuable Classes of Molecules

Nature, and notably so foods, contains a treasure trove of small molecule ingredients that can improve health, wellness and nutrition. But most of these ingredients have “issues”: the plant or animal that makes the ingredient is too rare, too hard to grow or does not make enough of it. Hence, the ingredient is not available at the right quality or price that allows most of us to benefit from it in a sustainable manner.

Evolva is leader in metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast for the production by fermentation of a diverse array of small molecule ingredients. Evolva has introduced a number such molecules to the market, such as Vanillin, Resveratrol, Valencene and Nootkatone and is on the way to introduce even more, such as Stevia sweeteners and Saffron ingredients. , All of these molecules are manufactured by fermentation from abundant inexpensive raw materials and delivered to the market via a reliable cost-effective production at consistent quality.

 Of particular interest to Evolva are the terpenes and one class of these is constituted by the naturally ubiquitous sesquiterpenes (C15). These are known to work a in a wide range of high value applications, including flavors and fragrances, cosmetic products, biofuels, pharmaceutical products and insect control. In spite of proven efficacy there has, however, been relatively little commercial development of sesquiterpene ingredients, mostly due to their high production cost.  We will present a number of Evolva ingredient projects in the terpene space, with particular emphasis on a range of sesquiterpenes.