The Role of Engineering Biology

Canada will be able to supply ingredients for 10 per cent of the worlds plant-based food and beverage products by 2035 – a $25 billion boost to the Canadian economy. It will increase jobs, GDP and investment.?

Alternative proteins are plant-based and food-technology alternatives to animal protein. They include food products made from plants (for example, grains, legumes, and nuts), fungi (mushrooms and yeast), algae, insects and even cultured (lab-grown) meat.??

The benefits of alternative proteins range from new market options for farmers, to a wider selection of healthy products on grocery store shelves, and the option to diversify crop rotation.

Enhancing the production of alternative proteins, and imbuing them with improved nutrition and flavour profiles can be accomplished many different ways. One of those ways is through the application of engineering biology

Dr. Benjamin Scott (Engineering Biology Platform Lead) from the Global Institute for Food Security tute for Food Security gives us his take on what Engineering Biology is:?

“My favourite definition of engineering biology is “using biology to build useful things”. It’s a purposefully broad definition and I think it’s one that resonates with people. Engineering biology has the potential to reshape how we produce everything, with applications spanning medicine, materials, energy, consumer goods, and of course agriculture and food.?

Often this involves engineering a microbe to produce something using fermentation. Similar to how we brew beer: with sugar, water, some amino acids, and a microbe. This has major cost benefits by being able to produce valuable products at a much larger scale and with cheaper feedstocks. From commodity chemicals that would ordinarily rely on fossil fuels, to medicines that would have needed costly synthesis or extraction from a rare plant. Products traditionally obtained from animals are also being produced using engineering biology, such as proteins, colours and flavours.??

Engineering biology also includes completely new types of products, that there’s no natural relation to. Such as cells that can sense and respond to disease, so that a drug is only delivered when it’s needed. Or pesticides engineered to target only a specific sub-species of a crop-destroying insect.??

This new technology will enhance and disrupt the existing ecosystem, and create new industries which has massive economic potential. The global market is estimated to reach $3.6 trillion in less than 20 years from now, which is almost double Canada’s current GDP, and 1/3rd of that is in agriculture and food applications. It’s an opportunity Canada can’t afford to ignore.”??

With size of market Canada can work with innovative companies from around the world that have already discovered a new way to use engineered biology to produce plant protein. By bringing new innovations to Canada, we can expedite commercialization. At GAAP we have worked with a company called ERGO Biosciences out of Argentina. Alejandro Barbarini , CEO and Co-Founder of Ergo joined us for two weeks in October for the Navigate program.??

“Ergo is a biotechnology-based company focused on developing innovative ingredients through Plant Cell Cultivation. Their Eukarya? platform allows us to obtain plant cell lines capable of expressing complex animal proteins efficiently. Their current ingredient portfolio includes Ergo-Myo?, a structurally identical myoglobin to bovine origin expressed in plant cells, and Ergo-Casein?, a blend of animal-free alpha s1 and kappa-casein for use in plant-based dairy products.??

Plant Cell Cultivation is a bioprocess involving the growth of plant cells in bioreactors to produce specific biomolecules of industrial interest or plant biomass. The first thing to note is that plant cells can reproduce in an undifferentiated manner in liquid culture media, generating large amounts of biomass in short periods. As mentioned earlier, these cells are undifferentiated; the correct term is meristematic, meaning they are neither leaf, root, nor stem cells—they are totipotent, akin to stem cells in mammals.”?

Alternative proteins, encompassing plant-based and food-technology substitutes for animal proteins, hold immense potential for economic growth and sustainability. Canada aims to target a significant share of this burgeoning market, potentially supplying a 10% global supply of plant-based food and beverage ingredients by 2035, which could translate into a $25 billion economic boost. Engineering biology, a pivotal part of this industry, utilizes microorganisms and fermentation processes to produce essential commodities more efficiently and at a larger scale. Innovations in this field include creating complex proteins from plant cells, as exemplified by companies like Ergo Biosciences, which develop animal-free protein alternatives through advanced bioprocesses. This technological advancement not only promises to revolutionize agriculture and food production but also offers substantial economic opportunities, potentially doubling the global market to $3.6 trillion in the next two decades. Canada’s strategic position and collaboration with global biotech innovators shows its readiness to leverage these advancements for economic and environmental benefits.

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Stay tuned for Part 2: Sustainability of Engineering Biology and Part 3: The Potential of Engineering Biology!?

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