Spiber opens its biofoundry to contract service
Japanese biotech company, under new ownership since the beginning of the year, is adding a new service to its business model with the decision to open access to its facilities to outside partners seeking to scale their own biotech materials.
The Spiber Biofoundry can help companies develop biotech materials for various industries. The company’s facilities in Japan and in Thailand are equipped with reactors spanning 1 to 10,000 litres. Its team can assist in the R&D process from gene sequence design to commercial production.
The company said these services can be useful for companies facing three familiar problems: yields that will not improve, projects stalled at scale-up, and the lack of contract manufacturers able to take a genetically modified microorganism from the lab to commercial volumes. The company is especially proud of the yields it has achieved in the development of its own Brewed Protein fibre: its production strains now reach titers (the concentration of proteins produced) of 50 grams/litre in its commercial facilities. This is considered a unique achievement by industry experts.
Maya Kawana, CEO, commented: “Spiber has achieved commercial-scale production of Brewed Protein materials, now adopted by more than 40 brands in over 200 products. Developing diverse structural proteins has enabled us to build the technology, expertise and facilities needed to scale fermentation from the lab to commercial production.”
