Benchmarking Synthetic Biology Product Development

Members: University of California, Berkeley, R2DIO, Antheia, Geno, Amyris, Oobli

Project dates: 2022 - 2025

This project defined practical metrics of product development performance and identified best practices that lead to faster development of higher performing bioproducts.

Companies must be able to identify promising new strains and develop a process able to consistently generate a commercial product from the strain with sufficiently high yield, titer, volumetric productivity, and final product purity to be cost-competitive with market alternatives. Variations in high-throughput screening, stirred tank fermentations, and downstream process development can all render identification uncertain and slow development. Through this project, researchers developed metrics characterizing process variation and more accurately predicting strain performance in larger-scale fermentation processes from smaller-scale high-throughput screening processes, as well as analytical methods.

Through site visits and data sharing related to fermentation data, screening data, and analytical controls data, the project team identified best practices to help companies commercialize their bioproducts faster, including:

• Institute control charts as part of true feedback control mechanisms

• Improve analytical method calibration

• Implement a strong audit trail database

• Run batches over the weekend

By enabling companies to set and track achievable metrics, these best practices will accelerate product development, shorten time to manufacturing readiness, and reduce costs.

Members, access the full report with detailed best practices here.   

Funding source: U.S. Department of Defense