Lygos develops technologies for the production of chemicals from renewable raw materials, mainly sugar. Specifically, Lygos' scientists engineer microbes that grow in fermentation tanks to consume sugar and produce a target chemical, which is then purified from the fermenter for sale. Lygos' technology provides a method to produce the same chemicals currently made from petroleum but at both lower cost and from a renewable resource. Traditionally, sugars derived from cornstarch or sugarcane have been used to produce biochemicals (e.g., fuel ethanol). More recently, new technologies for the production of cellulosic sugars (those derived from non-food biomass) have been developed. One of the typical problems with cellulosic sugars is their lower purity, and there is typically a high concentration of various byproducts that inhibit the microbe from efficiently producing the target chemcial. In this Phase I SBIR, Lygos is developing new fermentation technologies designed to enable the microbes to more efficiently use cellulosic sugars and produce the target chemical efficiently. The expected outcomes of this project is a novel fermentation-based production method for an industrially useful organic acid from cellulosic sugars. If successful, over $1B in downstream derivative compounds may be produced from this chemical.
