Food biology: Calyxt harnesses soybeans to produce commercial alternative to palm oil

<>21 Nov 2022 --- Plant-based synthetic biology continues to play a role in novel ingredient discovery, which ultimately helps alleviate global food chains from socio-economic and environmental strains. In this space, Calyxt has completed the first phase of its research project to develop an “improved soybean” capable of producing an oil as a commercial alternative to palm oil.

This development comes at a crucial time in the international dialogue regarding the deforestation impact of traditional palm oil sourcing and production.

“The achievement builds on our expertise working with soybeans along with our team’s innovation and collective drive to engineer plant-based solutions that address sustainability challenges for our customers,” remarks Michael Carr, president and CEO of Calyxt.

Calyxt has begun the second and final phase of the research collaboration and expects to complete its final phase in the first quarter of 2024.

Engineering plant metabolism
Calyxt’s technology platform, PlantSpring, is founded on its more than a decade of research in engineering plant metabolism.

The process includes the identification of breakthrough plant compounds based on customer needs, designing strategies to reprogram host cells, engineering plant cell metabolism to optimally produce targeted plant-based chemistries, and producing those target chemistries at laboratory scale.

PlantSpring operates on AI and machine learning capabilities. These help the company process knowledge gained from past research activities, which can be combined with predictive analytics to rapidly prototype and provide feedback.

All in all, the company says this accelerates the time to complete the “design-engineer-verify” development cycle of newly discovered food compounds, while helping mitigate the risks associated with commercial scale-up.

Calyxt has begun the second and final phase of the research collaboration and expects to complete its final phase in the first quarter of 2024.

As a result, Calyxt believes it can develop biomolecules in plants for customers at faster speeds against the benchmarks of the synthetic biology industry. The output from the PlantSpring platform integrates with the company’s newly commissioned BioFactory production system.

BioFactory system
Driven by its PlantSpring technology platform, Calyxt’s bioreactor-based production system, the “BioFactory,” enables the controlled replication and processing of plant-based molecules producing compounds using a matrix of plant cells.

Using Calyxt’s BioFactory, customers can manufacture complex, scarce plant compounds year-round indoors, protected from any adverse climate effects.

“The BioFactory production system is the culmination of the work of Calyxt’s researchers and will enable the company to expand its production methods from solely outdoor agriculture systems to also include controlled environment, bioreactor-based production systems,” details the company.

The BioFactory harnesses the potential of plant cells in a multicellular matrixed structure and utilizes nutrient media for its production. It leverages multiple cell types, and the multicellular matrix structures enable processing of plant-based chemistries of increased complexity relative to those possible using traditional fermentation systems or single cell plant culture methods. 

In addition, the speed of the matrix growth over time is expected to accelerate the production of the compound at scale. As a result, Calyxt’s production system is capable of unlocking the power of plants to produce complex compounds that are finite, difficult to source sustainably, and that may not be able to be produced using other production methods. 

Delivering unique food compounds with science
AI-fueled food science continues to speed up the pace at which novel plant-based ingredients are identified and put to use.

Earlier this year, biosciences data company Brightseed and olam food ingredients collaborated to explore which black pepper and garlic varieties deliver the highest levels of bioactives. Brightseed will use its AI-based platform Forager to identify complex molecular structures and novel compounds in these spice categories.

Brightseed previously teamed up with key industry players like Danone and Pharmavite. Last year, it also identified special plant molecules for clearing liver fat and promoting metabolic health.

Ocean Spray Cranberries was among notable F&B players who have leveraged AI technology in its R&D, particularly in profiling cranberry compounds to determine their specific impact on human health.

By Benjamin Ferrer