Project Grant DESC0018475

Integrated Lipid Biofuels LLC was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The two-year award will support the company's efforts to develop a process for converting organic waste into biopolymers by synergizing anaerobic digestion and synthetic biology techniques. The SBIR Program aims to stimulate technological innovation through the investment of federal...

This $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) aims to demonstrate the feasibility of producing chirally pure (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (R-3HB) from plant waste materials, such as wood and crop leftovers, by modifying Clostridium pathways. The research will create and test two different R-3HB production pathways in Clostridium, then combine and further optimize the approaches to boost R-3HB yields in the bacterium. If successful, this work...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $150,000 to researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) City College to investigate using hydrogen peroxide, a toxic waste product generated by certain bacteria, as an energy source for efficient biofuel and biochemical production. The key objectives are to: 1) develop an E. coli strain platform to control and monitor hydrogen...

This Project Grant award for $1,000,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) aims to develop a polyketide-based platform to produce a range of non-canonical amino acids (NCAAs) and demonstrate their incorporation into proteins expressed by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The key objectives of the 3-year project are to: 1) engineer a polyketide synthase (PKS) system to produce threonine and evolve it for increased productivity; 2) utilize...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) award of $150,000 to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York provides funding for a collaborative research project to investigate using hydrogen peroxide, a cellular waste product, as an alternative energy source for efficient biofuel and biochemical production. The key objectives of the project are to: 1) develop an E. coli strain platform to control and monitor hydrogen peroxide production, 2) create...

This Cooperative Agreement award of $2,572,498.00 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program, with a performance period from May 1, 2025 to Apr 30, 2028, aims to develop new bioplastics with diverse properties. The project will computationally design complex enzymes within engineered bacteria to produce novel, sturdy bioplastics that can withstand high temperatures and be easily recycled or biodegraded. This effort will strengthen supply...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $369,297 to San Francisco State University (SFSU) to develop a synthetic transhydrogenation module to enhance the production of valuable chemicals using engineered organisms. The key objectives are to: Elucidate the structural mechanisms underlying the autoregulation of the GltAB-GudB enzyme complex in Bacillus subtilis, which regulates glutamate metabolism and impacts...

Lanzatech, Inc. was awarded a $3.71 million cooperative agreement from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) to develop a carbon-negative chemical production platform. Under the three-year award beginning October 2021, Lanzatech will engineer a non-traditional host strain to maximize stable ethanol production from high hydrogen-to-carbon monoxide gas uptake ratios, enabling a single-step, direct carbon dioxide gas fermentation process integrated with...

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, awarded $175,000 under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to KSE, Inc. of Sunderland, Massachusetts. The award will support KSE's efforts to develop and scale an integrated process for converting lignocellulosic waste streams into 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) at high selectivity without pre-treatment of biomass compounds. Key activities include improving reactive...

Zymochem Inc. was awarded a $1,053,000 cooperative agreement from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy to develop a bio-electrochemical hybrid fermentation technology for carbon-conserving production of industrial chemicals. The two-year project, titled "Development of a Bio-Electrochemical Hybrid Fermentation Technology for the Carbon Conserving Production of Industrial Chemicals," aims to advance technologies for producing chemicals in a more...