Industrial Biotechnology
Enzyme engineering, bioprocessing and sustainable production.
Industrial biotechnology is central to the bioeconomy transition, replacing petrochemical processes with engineered microbial routes for fuels, materials, and chemicals. GSBG 2027 will cover directed evolution and machine-learning-guided enzyme design for plastic depolymerization (PETase, MHETase, FAST-PETase), CO2-fixing chemolithoautotrophs (LanzaTech), and engineered yeast for cannabinoids, opioids, and rare natural products. Sessions will examine continuous bioprocessing, downstream purification advances (single-pass tangential flow, magnetic bead capture), digital twins for bioreactor control, and the scale-up bottlenecks that determine whether a strain in flask becomes a 200,000-liter commercial product.
- PET-degrading enzymes: PETase, FAST-PETase, leaf-branch compost cutinase
- Gas fermentation: LanzaTech, Kiverdi for CO and CO2 valorization
- Engineered yeast for cannabinoids, opioids, and terpenoids
- Directed evolution and ML-guided enzyme engineering
- Continuous downstream processing and single-use bioreactors
- Digital twins and process analytical technology (PAT)
- Techno-economic analysis and scale-up from bench to commercial