Team:UC Davis E/Business

From 2012e.igem.org

Team:UC Davis - 2012.igem.org




Business

We collaborate with our partners and customers to determine how our technology can be leveraged to create alternative sources of specialty chemicals, previously limited due to price, supply, and environmental constraints. At the heart of the AmberCycle advantage is our proprietary technology platform which enables our performance-driven innovation philosophy. We begin our product development efforts by understanding and investigating the key molecular properties and chemical structures that are essential to delivering superior product performance. Understanding these factors allows us to identify target molecules that may be produced by fermentation using our unique technology.

Once we identify these target molecules, we engineer microbes to manufacture them in fermentation - an environmentally-responsible and cost-effective method of production. The molecule made from fermentation becomes a building block from which we derive products that are specifically designed to perform well in their applications. We believe in order for our technology to make an impact, our products must be designed to deliver the following attributes to our customers:

• High Performance
• Cost Competitiveness
• Sourced from Renewable Resources

Our initial portfolio of products is based on purified terephthalic acid, a precursor for plastic synthesis, manufactured using our engineered microbes in fermentation. Using PTA as a building block, our partners can develop a slate of different products for the materials and the specialty chemicals markets. Biocycled PTA is just the first of thousands of organic molecules made possible by our microbial platform. With access to such a broad array of building blocks, we have the potential to set new standards for sustainability of products the world needs.