SilicoLife launched an internal R&D program to promote the design of novel routes for the biological production of selected high-value chemicals with large market potential aiming to generate its own IP to be licensed out or used in joint ventures with industrial partners.
SilicoLife is exploring novel routes for the production of compounds currently only available through plant extraction or with synthetic analogues made primarily from petrochemicals. The lack of satisfying biological processes creates a market space for new sustainable production routes that will become extremely relevant to supply natural alternatives that can help satisfy the consumers.
Butanova is a novel and proprietary metabolic pathway for the production of n-butanol (patent pending). This new pathway, resulting from AI methodologies developed at the company, was implemented and experimentally validated in collaboration with University of Minho, in Portugal. The use of a non-previously reported precursor opens the door to a great variety of hosts and feedstocks.