Microbia Reports Breakthrough In Production Of Bio-based Lycopene

Microbia, a producer of sustainable specialty ingredients and biomaterials, has achieved an important milestone in creating its line of naturally derived carotenoids for the food ingredient and nutritional supplement markets.

Utilizing its proprietary metabolic engineering capabilities, the company has developed microbial strains that produce commercially significant levels of lycopene via fermentation, in excess of five grams per liter. This achievement clears the way for the initiation of safety studies, and first lycopene sales could occur as early as 2010, said the company.

Over the course of the last ten months, Microbia initiated its lycopene program and subsequently demonstrated the ability to produce this carotenoid at high levels in a large scale manufacturing plant.

Marcus Lovell Smith, chief executive officer of Microbia, said: “The results of these studies and the rapid timeline in which they were completed confirm the remarkable potential of our novel bio-manufacturing methods to produce carotenoids, compounds that currently represent a commercial opportunity in excess of $1 billion dollars.

“We are already at a substantial cost advantage over many traditional manufacturing processes, and we will continue to aggressively pursue even higher yields and production rates. Moreover, there are over 600 carotenoids found in nature, and we are confident that our technology can be tuned to make any number of them cost effectively.”

Reportedly, the company is now focused on the commercial launch of these products.

The carotenoids are part of the company’s larger effort to develop a production platform for lipophilic or ‘fat-loving’ compounds. Microbia researchers have established the feasibility of this platform for producing a wide variety of ingredients, spanning the food, feed and commodity chemical sectors.