Jan 22 2015
DEINOVE, an industrial biotech company developing innovative processes for producing biofuels and bio-based compounds from Deinococcus bacteria, today announced it has reached the first milestone of its DEINOCHEM green chemistry program, funded by the ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) in the framework of the French government initiative "Investing for the Future".
Consequently, DEINOVE will receive, in early February 2015, approximately one million euros in the form of a repayable advance.
The DEINOCHEM program aims to develop new industrial processes to produce intermediates or specialty chemicals from renewable resources by improving the performance of Deinococcus bacteria. The goal is to offer alternatives to products usually derived from petroleum or extracted from plants with low yields, for perfumeries, cosmetics, food and feed. The first molecules produced are aromatic ingredients, antioxidants and / or high-added value pigments, representing a market of hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.
Achieving this milestone validates the progress made in the genetic engineering of strains. The modified strains construction flow has multiplied by 10 in less than a year, thus accelerating the production and testing of strains of interest. Also, DEINOVE teams have made progress in identifying limiting enzymes[2] to optimize the production of targeted isoprenoids. The license acquired from the INRA and Genoplante Valor[3] for the key enzyme DXS has contributed to these results.