Fluxome's enabling technology is based on a cutting edge
technological platform that allows the use of microorganisms -
"cell factories" - to be designed towards producing specific
nutraceutical ingredients at high level. In principle, the core
technology platform of Fluxome is applicable for production of
API's, nutraceutical ingredients, plastics, polymers and bulk
chemicals. A typical workflow is identification of an interesting
product and the identification of the biosynthetic route leading to
this product. The company uses different microbial cell factories,
of which the preferred host is Baker's yeast Saccharomyces
cerevisiae, which has a number of advantages for Fluxome's use:
- Fluxome has an extensive knowledge on this organism in terms of
physiology, metabolism, regulation etc.
- Baker's yeast is well known in the food, pharma and
dietarysupplement industry
- Fermentation processes are easily scalable with this
organism
Fluxome applies a unique, combined computational and
experimental technology platform "Microbial Engineering" enabling
rapid design of cell factories with enhanced metabolic function.
This results in higher yield, and productivity of e.g. a specific
nutraceutical ingredient or chemical compound. Particular expertise
is available for industrial organisms within fungi including yeast
such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and filamentous fungi such as
Aspergillus niger.
Fluxome comprises four development phases including:
Identification of targets using mathematical models (In silico
Analysis), optimizing the cell factory (Strain construction), and
physiological characterization (Fermentation) all connected through
advanced analysis (Analysis).
In silico analysis allows the identification of further
non-obvious targets, - targets (including multiple targets) that
experienced researchers may not immediately suggest or find
obvious. Here, Fluxome uses various proprietary mathematical models
describing yeast and filamentous fungi metabolism.
Using advanced knowledge on microbial physiology and
fermentation technology, the behavior of the strain is investigated
quantitatively in controlled, small scale fermentations.
To support the core activities, Fluxome has developed proprietary
bioinformatics algorithms for rapid identification of pathways.
This allows Fluxome to identify the most likely candidates for a
given function, before applying parallel experimental techniques
and thus significantly reducing the time needed for discovery.
These algorithms are coupled to patent databases, and hence Fluxome
can couple the identification with a freedom to operate
analysis.
A portfolio of analytical methods including gas and high pressure
liquid chromatography as well as mass spectrometry is applied to
investigate the metabolic state(s) of the strains. Here
extracellular and intracellular metabolites can be quantified and
identified. A core expertise is the Fluxome analysis based on
13C-labeled substrates and metabolite profiling of selected sugars,
amino acids, and organic acids. Application of such methods leads
to a foot print of the active metabolism of a constructed strain
under selected conditions, and this information allows the
identification of targets that can lead to further improved product
yield or productivity.
