Metabolic Engineering
Metabolic engineering includes not only manipulation of endogenous metabolic pathways, but also the transplantation of metabolic pathways into new host organisms. In some instances the genes in a metabolic pathway are unknown, while in other cases some or all of the genes necessary and sufficient to produce a molecule are known. The massive expansion of available genomic information, particularly in the area of microbes, allows Solazyme’s researchers to push the limits of what can be produced by a chosen organism.
The integration of knowledge gained from public and proprietary genetic databases with other detailed biochemical, biophysical, and structural information can dramatically enhance the productivity of a metabolic pathway when the information is placed in the right hands. Solazyme’s scientific team uses well known techniques such as high throughput screening in conjunction with proprietary, hypothesis-driven protocols to produce novel strains capable of performing biochemical reactions that are unlikely to arise in nature.
In addition to changes in the types of molecules produced by an organism, metabolic engineering also allows for the significant upregulation of production of desired molecules. While such productivity improvements were very uncommon five years ago, 100-fold and higher increases in production of a desired molecule in a production organism have been increasingly demonstrated in academic and commercial settings. Solazyme’s technology is directed to increasing the productivity of selected metabolic pathways at levels that are commercially profitable and cheaper than traditional methods.
