Biotech Special Edition

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Biotechs

tackle UN Global Goals

Bruce Friedrich talks Good Food / Make the Scotland connection

Biotechnology

special edition

July 2018

his is the third year we have been media partners with the World

Congress on Industrial Biotechnology. Our frst special edition

for it was distributed at the San Diego Congress in 2016 – and

we are delighted to continue that journey in Philadelphia.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which hosts the

Congress, attracts the world’s leading industry players to what is

one of the most important annual events in the industrial

biotech ecosystem.

Continuing our Biotech &… theme from another special we

published earlier this year: food, the UN Global Goals, fragrances

and favourings are some of the areas we feature this time, as well

as the strength of the market in Scotland. Taking this angle allows

us to efectively communicate the impact of biotech, not just to

stakeholders attending events like this, but to the public and a

cross-sector audience digitally.

I am also delighted to introduce a new column from Carlotta De

Toni, Impact Comms Lead and Engagement Editor of our quarterly,

Impact Innovators. Carlotta took part in the Climate Reality

Leadership Corps training, led by Al Gore, in Berlin last month. She

will be sharing her insight on climate-related

issues with industry audiences in these special

conference editions and online.

IN THIS ISSUE

CORE TEAM

Welcome

Iain

Robertson

Editor

Biotechnology & …

2 The UN Global Goals

4 Food

6 Flavourings & fragrances

8 Scotland

Q&A

14 Adeel Aslam, Bouygues

Energies & Services

New!

16 Lessons in Climate Reality

Editor | Iain Robertson

Partnerships | Susan Robertson

Digital | Ryan McFadyen

Design | Blair Carrick

News & Features | Carlotta De Toni

Operations | Gillian Greig

Innovators Magazine accepts no responsibility for any efects from errors or omissions. All material is copyright and reproduction is not

permitted without express permission. All rights reserved.

GET IN TOUCH

innovatorsmag.com

@innovatorsmag

connect@innovatorsmag.com

innovatorsmag

Amsterdam +310 613 711 239 | Glasgow +44 141 570 0029

Industrial biotech tackles

global grand challenges

10

IB plays a fundamental role in delivering

solutions for a large majority of the

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

both in the EU and globally

ompanies focusing on industrial

biotechnology (IB) and the

bioeconomy are contributing

towards achieving 11 out of 17 SDGs,

enabling smarter and more efcient

use of precious natural resources,

developing renewable alternatives

to traditional fossil-carbon products,

helping to mitigate the impacts of

climate change, reducing energy

consumption and man-made emissions

to soil, air, and water. These are the main

results of our new report about the

impact of industrial biotech towards

meeting global challenges.

IB uses enzymes and micro-organisms to

make bio-based products in sectors such

as chemicals, bio-based plastics, bio-based

lubricants, bio-based solvents, food and

feed, detergents, paper and pulp, textiles,

as well as bioenergy, such as biofuels and

biogas. It also plays an important role in

bioremediation through water purifcation

and soil recovery. As such, IB is increasingly

recognised by a growing community of

stakeholders as playing an important role in

responding to some of the greatest global

challenges and helping to achieve objectives

under the UN’s SDG framework.

It is now critical for Europe to develop

a more competitive and sustainable

bioeconomy. To this end, the EU’s ‘Horizon

Europe’ proposal will be key to ensuring that

By Joanna Dupont Inglis, EuropaBio

Deputy Secretary General

11

the right investments in innovation are made

to address societal challenges and deliver

on the UN SDGs. I invite you to read the new

EuropaBio report, which also includes policy

recommendations for the EU, at

europabio.org/industrial-biotech.

The place to be to hear all the latest on

the innovative biotechnology products

and processes that are coming online and

that can contribute to the UN Sustainable

Development Goals is the European Forum

for Industrial Biotechnology and the

Bioeconomy (EFIB): 17 – 18 October 2018 in

Toulouse France.

Over the last decade, EFIB’s delegates,

exhibitors, sponsors and speakers have been

showcasing innovative IB solutions to the

UN Sustainable Development Goals. This

year, we will celebrate the IB communities’

latest achievements in harnessing the

power of innovation with infuential brands

and Industry leaders, as well as start-ups

and entrepreneurs and a broad range of

stakeholders and policy-makers.

Around 600 attendees and more than 60

international speakers from the industrial

biotechnology and bioeconomy area are

expected to join this two-day event with

presentations and panel discussions covering

the sectors of bio-based plastics, food, feed

and nutrition, wood biorefning, synthetic

biology, and sustainable aviation amongst

other topics. In addition, we will learn

more about fnancing, joint ventures and

partnerships. This year, EFIB will also ofer

small and medium-sized companies (SMEs)

a reduced fee. Start-ups are also invited to

take part in the PitchFest and the START-UP

VILLAGE@EFIB, a new initiative welcoming

fresh and new founders of the bio-based

circular economy in the exhibition.

You can find more

information at:

efibforum.com

EFIB 2017

EFIB

2017

The Meat Industry is

Transforming

You Can Be a Part of It

By Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director, The Good Food Institute

n January of this year, I wrote an article

for Innovators Magazine, Make money

and save the world. In the article, I

documented some of the many problems

with how we currently produce meat, from

the way that current systems contribute to

global hunger to the link between the meat

industry and environmental degradation.

For more, please see this TED Talk: Markets &

Food Technology Will Save the World.

Luckily, innovators around the world are

creating better ways to produce meat. Some

companies are breaking meat down into

its constituent parts – amino acids, lipids,

minerals, and water – and replicating all

those elements with plants: plant-based

meat. Others are making clean meat, taking

a cue from Winston Churchill’s prediction

in 1931: “We shall escape the absurdity of

growing a whole chicken in order to eat

the breast or wing, by growing these parts

separately under a suitable medium.”

These clean meat companies have made

tremendous strides. It was only fve years

ago this August that former Harvard Medical

School professor, Dr Mark Post presented

the frst clean meat hamburger, courtesy of

$1 million grant from Google co-founder

Sergey Brin. In the time since, there has been

tremendous growth in the feld. Nearly 20

clean meat companies have formed or are in

the process of forming, from Silicon Valley to

Israel to Japan. There have been tastings of

clean meat meatballs, chicken, duck, steak

chips, foie gras, fsh, and more.

In addition to Sergey Brin, plant-based

and clean meat are backed by a range of

tech visionaries: from Bill Gates and Richard

Branson to venture capital kingmakers DFJ

and Google Ventures.

But it isn’t just the tech world that is

supporting clean meat. Tyson Foods – the

largest meat producer in the United States

– has invested in both Memphis Meats and

Israel’s Future Meat Technologies. Meat

conglomerate Cargill has also invested in

Memphis Meats. And PHW Group, Germany’s

largest chicken company, has invested in

Israel’s SuperMeat.

Governments are also starting to see

the need to fund this transformative

technology. The Netherlands was the frst

to support clean meat research. Since then,

there has been interest from India, and the

Israeli government’s innovation fund is

supporting Aleph Farms’ development. In

May of this year, the Japanese government

invested in Integriculture.

While clean meat’s widespread

commercial availability is still in the future,

amazing plant-based meat is available now.

Cutting-edge companies like Impossible

Foods and Beyond Meat are capturing media

attention, as well as hundreds of millions

of dollars in global investments. This is not

surprising, given that the companies are

targeting meat eaters by bio-mimicking

meat’s structure and taste.

When Bill Gates tasted Beyond Meat’s

plant-based chicken strips, he said he

couldn’t tell the diference. Gates declared:

“What I just ate was not just a clever meat

substitute; what I just ate is the future of

food.” Since then, Beyond has introduced the

Beyond Burger and Sausage, both to great

success. For example, the Beyond Burger was

restaurant chain TGI Friday’s fastest test-to-

table menu item ever.

Other plant-based meat companies

have upped their game in response to

growing demand. Tofurky’s Slow Roasted

Chick’n is superb, and their new ham roast

is so good it’s scary. Canada’s largest meat

producer, Maple Leaf Foods, has purchased

innovative plant-based meat companies

Lightlife and Field Roast. Maple Leaf’s

plan? To be the most sustainable protein

company in the world.

Plant-based and clean meat are

advancing so quickly that it is almost

impossible to keep up. This is a major reason

The Good Food Institute is hosting The

Good Food Conference this September at

the University of California Berkeley. It is

being co-hosted by the Sutardja Center for

Entrepreneurship & Technology as well as

Dr Mark Post himself – fve years and one

month after he launched the clean meat

burger into the world

With Dr Post’s help, we are gathering

the world’s leading scientists, engineers,

entrepreneurs, investors, and policy experts

to discuss every aspect of the new food

system we’re building. The speakers include

plant-based and clean meat pioneers Dr

Uma Valeti of Memphis Meats, Josh Tetrick

of JUST, Dr Pat Brown of Impossible Foods,

and Seth Goldman of Beyond Meat.

A few other notables include James

Joaquin of Obvious Ventures, Tom

Mastrobuoni from Tyson Ventures,

and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Ann Veneman.

Moderators include representatives from

the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MIT

Technology Review, Inc. Magazine, Wired,

Vox, the BBC, and Business Insider.

If you can’t make the conference, please

be sure check out this TED Talk: Markets &

Food Technology Will Save the World and

please be a part of this transformation of the

meat industry.

Sign up for the Good

Food Conference

6-7 September. University of

California Berkeley

www.goodfoodconference.com

Bruce

Friedrich

IMAGE CREDIT: MEMPHIS MEATS

BIOFLAVOUR 2018

good smell, taste and health

thanks to biotechnology

rankfurt will once again be the focus

of the biofavour and fragrance

world from September 18 to 21.

Scientists from all around the world will

discuss cutting-edge biofavour research,

academic and industrial alike. 2015 saw the

frst BIOFLAVOUR conference in the era of

modern biotechnology with high quality

lectures and posters, intense discussions and

relaxed and ‘favourful’ social events. More

than 150 participants from over 20 diferent

countries came to Frankfurt, Germany.

More than 40% attendees from industry are

proof for the commercial relevance of the

conference topic.

New in 2018:

functional ingredients

BIOFLAVOUR 2018 expands the scope

beyond favours and fragrances and

includes functional ingredients as well. The

borders between these ‘FFF’ compounds

are rather fexible and biotechnology

is a key driver to new products and

processes for all of them. Often, favour and

fragrance compounds themselves have

known additional functionalities, such as

antimicrobial or antioxidative activities, or

are structurally closely related to bioactive

compounds. Companies and research

groups are on their way to developing

microbial and plant cell factories to

produce favours, fragrances and bioactives

whose use in foods, beverages, cosmetics,

agricultural and pharmaceutical products

is a sought-after application of high

commercial value.

With 48 lectures and even more posters

from experts in the feld, this year’s

BIOFLAVOUR programme will certainly

be outstanding. We expect scientists from

more than 25 countries all around the world

covering a range of fascinating topics about

biotechnology for favours, fragrances and

functional ingredients. Having a view on

the scientifc programme, the participants

can expect to get answers to questions like

these: What is the impact of biotechnology

for tomorrow’s favour and fragrance

industry? What are the technological and

regulatory challenges for biotech in this

feld? Will we be able to design artifcial

trufes aroma by biotechnology? How do

functional genomics help discriminating

between diferent Cannabis plants used for

patients? Can biotechnology make hoppy

beers without using hops? What is the

impact of synthetic biology on winemaking?

Are today’s so-called ‘microbial cell factories’

ready for the sustainable production of

healthy carotenoids, polyphenols, natural

citrus and raspberry aromas from cheap and

simple feedstocks like sugar? Is it possible to

make a better tasting Steviol sweetener with

microbes than with the best Stevia plant

itself? Is it also possible to produce plant-

like essential oils, such as oils from precious

but endangered agarwood or sandalwood,

without plants but designer microbes? How

do we have to design the corresponding

fermentation processes for a sustainable and

economically viable industrial production?

How can we use our knowledge about

human taste receptors to combat obesity

or cardiovascular diseases with designer

favours? And what about our best friends,

cats and dogs – can we make them drool

and be happy with biotech ingredients

in their food?

The answers to these and more questions

will be given at BIOFLAVOUR 2018.

Be part of

Bioflavour 2018

and register now!

www.dechema.de/en/

biofavour2018

or scan the QR code

The BIOFLAVOUR conference series is a

perfect example of how synergies arise

if two complementary parts work closely

together: DECHEMA Society for Chemical

Engineering and Biotechnology and

DECHEMA Research Institute in Frankfurt,

Germany. The society is ‘the’ networking

platform for the chemical engineering and

biotechnology community, fostering the

dialogue between science and industry.

One of its core competencies is organizing

scientifc conferences – in Germany and

internationally. The research institute

mirrors this philosophy by running its own

laboratories in the same DECHEMA house

with interdisciplinary research teams. Here,

chemists, engineers and biotechnologists

strive for excellence in science and its

transfer to industrial application. More than

two decades ago, BIOFLAVOUR conference

chair, Prof. Jens Schrader, started to

establish the feld of aroma biotechnology

at the DECHEMA Research Institute.

Driven by the fascinating perspectives

of a fast expanding toolbox of modern

biotechnology, the scientists have been

investigating many microbes to unleash

their metabolic power for the synthesis of

natural products, especially favours and

fragrances. Among the achievements of

the institute in the feld are fermentation

processes for natural food favours and

fragrances, bioactives, and functional

cosmetic ingredients, besides others. As

‘bridging the gap between fundamental

research and industrial application’ is a key

mission of the institute, it is not surprising,

that some of the developments have been

transferred into industrial application in

the meantime. Consequently, the institute

has been a professional research partner

to the aroma industry for many years now,

not only in publicly funded collaborations

but also for bilateral contract research.

DECHEMA unites its unique scientifc

background in biotechnology and its

professional know-how in organizing

conferences. Biofavour 2018 will be an

internationally recognized meeting with

cutting-edge science, industrial and

academic alike, and lots of opportunities

for networking and socializing.

www.dechema.de

www.dechema-df.de

Look forward to these

exciting keynote

lectures

Gastrophysics: Pairing and

sequencing favour

(and other) sensations.

Charles Spence, University of

Oxford, United Kingdom

Synthetic biology, Yeast2.0

and their potential to impact the

winemaker’s art.

Anthony Borneman, The

Australian Wine Research

Institute, Adelaide, Australia

From favours to bioactives

– chemoreceptors you always

meet twice.

Dietmar Krautwurst, Leibniz

institute for Food Systems

Biology at the Technical

University of Munich,

Freising, Germany

About the organizer:

DECHEMA: scientific society and research

institute under one roof

The society is ‘the’

networking platform for

the chemical engineering

and biotechnology

community

Whisky

Galore

and More

Maximising Value from Distilleries

stablishing a bio-refnery is expensive and high-risk. Anything that reduces costs

and risk is important to the long-term sustainability of Industrial Biotechnology.

Increasingly, companies are looking to build sustainable bio-refneries around

existing and proftable ventures. In Scotland, companies are developing technologies for

use at scale to valorise co-products from the whisky distilling industry, which uses around

one million tonnes of barley and other cereals annually, much of which is underutilised and

presents an ideal opportunity for bio-refning.

Welcome

Glasgow, Scotland

to a special feature section from the Industrial

Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC),

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