Written by Rachel Thompson, Edited by Charlotte Pugsley, Caroline Babisz and Alex Gresty.
Introducing Evolutor – one of the incredible start-ups taking part in the Science Entrepreneur Club’s Innovator Club in 2022.
Currently based at the University of Sheffield in the Chemical and Biological Engineering department, Evolutor was created following the amazing work of Prof. Tuck Seng Wong and Dr Kang Lan Tee, through which CEO, Joe Price, envisioned the evolutionary microbe development company: Evolutor. Evolutor’s Accelerated Evolution Platform allows them to use the power of adaptive evolution to create improved microbes for industrial usage. With this platform, their ambition is to build the world’s first evolutionary bio-foundry, a vision they have named Galapagos Towers. Galapagos Towers will involve Evolutor’s work to harness the natural evolution of microbes and will be enhanced by their innovative technologies.
Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) is an approach used in the lab to adapt and evolve microbial strains to have desired features [1]. This approach applies the rules of natural selection and can be used as a tool to understand molecular evolution [1, 2].
The team at Evolutor use their technology to automate and amplify ALE to create their desired microbial strains. Evolutor’s powerful devices will establish a platform for microbe optimisation for industrial usage. These devices have been designed to culture microbes and regulate evolution through an automated software system that will control the selective pressures and force the microbes to evolve in a specified direction at an accelerated pace.
This optimisation process can be used to help microbes withstand selective manufacturing conditions, such as certain temperatures, pH as well as other desirable properties depending on the application that the microbe is being used for. Evolutor are currently working on bacterial feedstock utilisation, yeast inhibitor tolerance and bacterial thermotolerance [3].
Evolutor have subjected fast growing microbes, such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to their platform for optimisation. For example, Evolutor has developed S. cerevisiae (also known as baker’s yeast) to have increased production capabilities in a higher concentration of chemical inhibitors, which would not have been possible without optimisation through their ALE platform. In addition to these two common examples, Evolutor are working on more obscure microbes that will provide exciting potential opportunities in the future.
Zippy-Gene is a proprietary molecular toolkit developed by Prof. Tuck Seng Wong and Dr. Kang Lan Tee which is used to amplify the population diversity and unlock the full potential within the microbial genomes. This implicates the two essential aspects of evolution: population diversity and directional selection pressure.
Zippy-Gene’s power has been demonstrated by the team in combination with their Accelerated Evolution Platform technology to evolve E. coli with a significantly increased thermotolerance. E. coli is a good bacterial system to use for this demonstration because it’s fast growing, easy to handle and cheap to maintain. The Zippy-Gene toolkit was then applied to the evolved E. coli population to rapidly identify the genes responsible for the bacteria’s improved performance, and reverse engineer these same genes taken from other microbial species into E. coli to validate its evolutionary role. By harnessing the natural power of evolution in these microbes, Evolutor has created an extremely powerful toolkit and technology platform.
There are many industrial applications that ALE and microbe optimisation can be used for within the biotechnology and precision fermentation industries such as chemicals, food and drink, pharmaceuticals, agri-tech and more. However, while Evolutor is still growing, CEO Joe Price and his team are focusing their efforts primarily on biofuels. This area has the potential to bring about a multitude of positive effects on the environment, food security and sustainability. This will help to combat the energy crisis and the growing demand for more renewable energy sources.
Biofuels use plant sources to produce energy. There are many different types of biofuels, including biodiesel, bioethanol, and lignocellulose-based fuels. The first generation of biofuels use edible feedstock such as corn or palm oil. However second generation biofuels use non-edible plant oils or even waste materials for conversion into high-value fuels for sustainable aviation and maritime use [3]. Evolutor are generating microbes for this second generation biofuel type, showing promising potential for the future as well as hoping to contribute to creating a ‘green economy for all’.
Evolutor are on track to expand in the near future. This includes growing into larger laboratory spaces, increasing production and moving into additional industrial application spaces such as bio-materials and food-tech.
Evolutor is an up-and-coming microbe optimisation company created and nurtured by their CEO Joe Price working alongside his team of researchers. Their automated processes for microbe optimisation using adaptive laboratory evolution are powerful, ground-breaking and efficient. It’s a start-up worth keeping an eye on as they ‘spark a revolution in microbial optimisation’.
To read more about Evolutor or if you would like to learn more about microbe optimisation, adaptive laboratory evolution and biofuels, please refer to their website or other resources below.
[1] M. Mavrommati, M. et al. 2021. Adaptive Laboratory evolution principles and applications in Industrial Biotechnology, Biotechnology Advances. Elsevier. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734975021001014 (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
[2] Dragosits, M. and Mattanovich, D. 2013. Adaptive Laboratory evolution – principles and applications for biotechnology - microbial cell factories, BioMed Central. BioMed Central. Available at: https://microbialcellfactories.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2859-12-64 (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
[3] Evolution unlocked (2023) Evolutor. Available at: https://evolutor.bio/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
[4] Eswaran, N., Parameswaran, S. and Johnson, T.S. 1970. Biofuels and Sustainability, SpringerLink. Springer US. Available at: https://link.springer.com/protocol/10.1007/978-1-0716-1323-8_20 (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
[5] Gonzalez-Perez, D. et al. 2021. Random and combinatorial mutagenesis for improved total production of secretory target protein in escherichia coli, Scientific reports. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7935960/ (Accessed: April 21, 2023).
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