Spun out of the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lygos Inc. is structured around high efficiency, novel processes for renewable chemicals using the firm's expertise in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. A full-stack producer of specialty chemicals delivering high-value performance without the environmental toxicity, many of the firm's target products are organic acids, compounds that are expensive to synthesize using petrochemistry but can be produced at high theoretical yield microbially. A high yielding process means less sugar is required to produce each kilogram of product, decreasing operating costs and lowering exposure to changing raw material (e.g., corn) prices. Low operating costs is a fundamental reason why microbial production of organic acids (e.g., itaconic, lactic, citric, and succinic acids) has been more successful than biofuels (e.g., farnesane, bio-diesel, butanol, and ethanol). In April 2022, it was announced that Lygos and Flexible Solutions International had negotiated a $160M definitive Merger Agreement to form a leading sustainable specialty ingredient
