Enduro Genetics, an innovative start-up from Denmark, is dedicated to enhancing efficiency in the biomanufacturing sector. By creating conditions that make producing cells ‘addicted’ to output, this start-up seeks to significantly boost production efficiency in various fermentation-based industries, including alternative proteins.
Challenges of Fermentation Efficiency
According to Enduro’s CEO, Christian Munch, when organisms reproduce, they strive to do so abundantly while using minimal energy.
Even when engineered for specific product creation, these organisms tend to mutate with each new generation to optimize for survival and growth.
“You still have four billion years of DNA around the DNA you inserted. It’s just hardwired. It’s evolution,” Munch emphasizes.
In fermentation processes, as producing cells prioritize energy for production, subsequent generations begin seeking alternative growth strategies, inadvertently reducing efficiency.
“Eventually, production will vanish completely, and all the cells that are in the bioreactor [will now be] cells that have figured out how to escape production,” Munch explains.
This phenomenon typically occurs over a span of 60 to 80 generations—roughly three to five days.
“The more you have engineered your organism to produce, the faster it will escape,” Munch notes, indicating that the most prolific cells are often the quickest to diverge.
While not all fermentation processes face this issue—some are ‘growth-coupled’ like ethanol, where increased microorganism growth directly correlates to higher production—Munch asserts that many do encounter these efficiency losses.
Boosting Fermentation Efficiency
Munch explains that Enduro’s innovative technology has the capacity to make any fermentation product growth-coupled.
Through a plug-in solution, the technology effectively convinces the organism that production is vital for growth, thereby linking productivity with health and vitality.
“Therefore, it’s only the high-producing cell variants that can grow efficiently. And if new cell variants are formed, then they’re not able to grow efficiently,” he elaborates.
This method reduces costs by amplifying the presence of highly productive cells. Munch states that typically, only 15-20% of cells at the end of a fermentation process are ‘high producers,’ contributing about 50% of the total product. The remainder are low or non-producers, consuming valuable resources.
The company’s technology also addresses the common decline in productivity noted during fermentation processes.
Additionally, it empowers companies to execute continuous fermentation cycles, allowing for partial harvests without the need for complete bioreactor cleanouts—a method referred to as fill and draw.
Ultimately, while the product remains unchanged, the productivity rate sees a significant improvement due to this technology.
Furthermore, this advancement enables producers to lower carbon emissions by simply enhancing production efficiency. “The input required is the same, but you get more out,” Munch clarifies.
The scalability of various fermentation processes is also enhanced; while some may perform effectively in labs or small bioreactors, they often falter at larger scales. Enduro’s technology prevents such collapses, facilitating successful scaling.
However, this technology holds limited benefits for processes that are already growth-coupled. “If the production is not a burden, then there’s not a big problem for us to solve,” Munch explains.
This plug-in technology is versatile, applicable across the industry, and requires approximately six to eight months for implementation.