Glycos Biotechnologies and Eureka Genomics Sequence the Genome of a Proprietary Bacterium for Emerging Biorefinery Industry

28 April 2009

Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc. (GlycosBio), a pioneer in metabolic engineering, and Eureka Genomics, a leader in analysis of next-generation genomic sequencing data, have sequenced the genome of a proprietary bacterium that could initially increase the ethanol yield from corn ethanol plants and will support the growth of an emerging biorefinery industry.

The new bacterial strain is targeted at producing ethanol from the thin stillage byproduct of the fermentation process. GlycosBio’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Paul Campbell said that the company is targeting a 5 - 7.5% yield increase at an existing ethanol facility via the fermentation of the thin stillage, at a target cost of around $1.00 - $1.25 per gallon.

GlycosBio’s overall strategy is to commercialize a portfolio of microbial strains to produce a variety of high-margin biochemicals from a diverse set of feedstocks and co-product streams. Convertible feedstocks in addition to the thin stillage from ethanol include a wide range of cellulosics, algae, biodiesel glycerin, and other renewable feedstocks that traditionally have a very low financial value.

[While] our first goal is to produce more ethanol, we really intend on making higher value chemicals. We’d rather be seen as a biochemicals company rather than a biofuels company.

—Paul Campbell

The bacterium, about which GlycosBio is not providing much information at this point, came out of its strain collection process. The company, which is a small start-up, turned to Eureka Genomics as an outsourced bioinformatics group to provide the detailed genomic information that will allow them to further optimize the microorganism.

By providing microbial strains that can convert co-products from ethanol production into higher value chemicals, GlycosBio’s technology platform will increase the economic stability of the ethanol industry by enabling a sustainable biorefinery. GlycosBio’s proprietary bacterial strain will further aid the industry by accelerating the development of technology to convert cellulosic biomass to ethanol or valuable biochemicals.

We are very impressed with the assembly that Eureka Genomics was able to generate for us. This work effort will accelerate our strain development as we move towards commercialization efforts around converting cellulosic biomass for the emerging cellulosic ethanol industry. The genomic sequence data provided by Eureka Genomics were very easy to use. We wanted to look at new genes and could not have done this without them.

—Paul Campbell

Eureka Genomics is a privately held company that has commercialized a proprietary Next Generation DNA sequencing data analysis platform to enable the discovery and development of next-generation diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and clean tech products such as bioenergy feedstocks.

Eureka Genomics’ pipeline includes analysis for a wide variety of applications including mapping, analysis of genetic variations, design of probes and primers, methylation analysis, as well as discovery of the non-host nucleic acids with complex diseases or present in samples suspected of carrying any unknown microorganisms.