SBIR-STTR Award

Taurine (Tau) is an essential nutrient for humans and animals; it is needed for cardiovascular skeletal muscle vision and nervous system function. Tau is naturally occurring in meat and other animal products. As we shift to more plant-based food and feed diets Tau must be added as an ingredient or taken as a supplement to maintain healthy Tau levels. The vast majority of Tau is manufactured in China from petrochemical-based processes that use carcinogenic and hazardous compounds. The overall project goal is to produce a sustainable non-petroleum-based cost- competitive source of Tau that could be added as a nutritional ingredient in alternative protein products. This Phase I project aims to establish a minimum viable process for the commercial production of Tau using microbial fermentation. The plan is to use genetic engineering to (a)introduce a constitutive promoter into the Tau biosynthetic pathway (b) knock out the Tau degradation pathways and (c) modulate the global regulator of sulfur metabolism. Media formulation and fermentation parameters will be optimized to further increase Tau production and demonstrate scalability using fermentation. To achieve cost competitiveness Phase II efforts will focus on the development of an economical downstream process for Tau purification and optimization of carbon nitrogen and sulfur utilization. This project addresses the USDA NIFA goal to contribute to the nation's energy independence through sustainable production of bio-based products and with the aim of the Food Science and Nutrition topic area to develop new and improved technologies and products that enhance the nutritional quality of foods.

Taurine an essential nutrient for human and animal health naturally occurs in meat and other animal products. As we shift to more plant-based food and feed diets taurine must be added as an ingredient or a supplement to maintain healthy taurine levels. Currently three Chinese companies produce 85% of the world's taurine supply using a petroleum-based process that harms humans animals and the environment. The overall project goal is to produce a cost-competitive non-petroleum source of taurine using a bio-based solution with renewable resources. Our approach uses recombinant microbes as bio-factories in a fermentor with simple sugar and natural compounds to produce taurine. The bio-based taurine could be added as anutritional ingredient in alternative protein products or used in a broad range of market sectors including food feed and personal care. This Phase II project aims to establish a minimum viable process for the commercial production of pure bio-based taurine. To achieve this goal (1)genetic modifications will be applied to increase taurine production by over expressing genes in the serine precursor pathway deregulating genes in the sulfur pathway and constructing ordered assemblies of peptides in the taurine pathway and (2) a downstream processing (DSP) protocol will be developed. This project addresses the USDA NIFA goal to contribute to the nation's energy independence through sustainable production of bio-based products and with the aim of the Food Science and Nutrition topic area to develop new and improved technologies and products that enhance the nutritional quality of foods.