Oxygen functionalities are key functional groups in many of today’s chemicals and materials. The efficient introduction of oxygen-functionalities into raw materials are key chemical transformations in bulk and fine chemicals. Innovative bio-catalytic oxidation routes using molecular oxygen (from air) under benign and mild (pH) conditions such as ambient temperature and pressure can greatly improve the sustainability and economics of processes, but were so far mainly been applied in the pharma segments. In this segment, the enzyme-catalyzed step often represents the highest added value and the high price of the end-product (> €1000/kg) justifies less than optimal enzyme production and limitations in its catalytic efficiency. In order to achieve the widening of industrial application of enzymatic bio-oxidation processes to also larger volume but lower price chemical markets, ROBOX will demonstrate the techno-economic viability of bio-transformations of four types of robust oxidative enzymes: P450 monooxygenases (P450s), Baeyer-Villiger MonoOxygenase (BVMOs), Alcohol DeHydrogenase (ADH) and Alcohol OXidase (AOX) for which target reactions have already been validated on lab-scale in pharma, nutrition, fine & specialty chemicals and materials applications. ROBOX will demonstrate 11 target reactions on large scale for these markets in order to prepare them for scale up to commercial-scale plants. ROBOX is industry-driven with 2 major industrial players and 6 SME’s. It will assess the potential of technologies applied to become platform technologies technologies (multi-parameter screening systems, computational methodologies, “plug bug” expression systems) for broad replication throughout the chemical industry. The markets addressed within ROBOX represent a joint volume of over 6.000 ktons/year. The introduction of bio-oxidation processes is expected to bring substantial reductions in cost (up to -50%), energy use (-60%), chemicals (-16%) and GHG-emissions (-50%).

The main objective of BOB is to hire and integrate a highly-committed candidate to build up an innovation strategy at c-LEcta to valorize its unique technology platform by developing an innovation project according to the company strategy to become a food ingredient producer. The envisaged innovation will help to solve the industrial problem of natural product synthesis, which is today hampered by yield limits, inefficiencies in chemical synthesis, or side-effects. The functional potential of numerous natural products can only be fully exploited if the commercial production at low cost is possible. Synthetic biology is expected to achieve a break-through for increased or cheaper production. c-LEcta has conceptualized a unique technology platform, already demonstrated the concept’s feasibility, and is targeting new molecules for further growth. However, the innovation team currently lacks of a candidate that comprises excellent technology knowledge in industrial biotechnology and/or food science and innovation management or business administration skills for assessing market values at an early development stage. The German job market is currently marked by a lack of expert personnel, and c-LEcta is experiencing difficulties in receiving high-quality responses to such a position, as it is not visible enough to job-seekers. This will be overcome by a targeted international publication of the vacancy on EURAXESS and beyond. After acquisition of a suitable candidate according to the defined profile, the specific objectives of BOB are: 1) to train the Associate according to a dedicated initiation and advanced training plan (according to the specific needs of the candidate); 2) to identify and assess new target products; and 3) to turn this assessment into an innovation idea and a strategy, deriving at least 1 innovation project. Finally, the Innovation Associate is expected to stay with the company and to strengthen the Innovation and Business development team.

At present there is a mismatch between the extensive interest of the pharmaceutical industry to utilize enzyme technology in their production processes and the number of such processes commercially implemented. To overcome this mismatch c-LEcta aims at offering a smart platform of Plug & Play enzymes for the three most relevant enzyme classes (alcohol dehydrogenase, transaminases, and nitrilase). The platform will address the needs of the pharma industry for performing essential biocatalytic reactions suitable for the production of million fold applied chiral active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) like Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin and Duloxetine. The API market is valued at $101.08 billion in 2010. The unique selling proposition of this platform is to comprise ~100 high quality enzymes per class, which are pre-qualified for a wide range of important structural patterns, applicable for synthesis processes and easily scalable. Therefore, the business opportunity is to take advantage of the great potential of biocatalysis since the platform allows matching timelines and cost requirements. Up to now such service was not available without contract signing and extensive development timelines and costs. The development cost may be reduced up to ~80% by using the new platform technology compared to the conventional work flow. In manufacturing, the total production cost of a product will be typically reduced by > 30%. The platform will be promoted to a medium volume market with high growth rates. c-LEcta will address the global market, which is going to be widened step-by-step. Subject matter of Phase 2 c-LEcta is to refine the design of the enzyme platform, to scale up the enzyme production, synthesis process development and pilot-scale application in order to demonstrate and to assure rapid availability of enzymes in pharma development and for subsequent commercialization.