Reaping Sweet Benefits of Industrialized Synthetic Biology: A Case Study of Successful Manufacturing Scale-up for Rebaudioside M

Synthetic biology is a rapidly developing industry interfacing Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science. The goal is to make efficacious, pure products faster, cheaper, and more sustainably. Because the products are made by yeast, a living organism, many more new molecules can now be made without traditional chemical synthesis. Yet, there are different limitations and new challenges to manufacturing. Amyris is a science and technology leader in the research, development and production of sustainable ingredients which applies its innovative bioscience platforms to convert plant sugars into a wide variety of molecules. Amyris is also one of the very few synthetic biology companies that has successfully managed to bridge the “valley of death” from lab-to-market, commercializing 13 molecules.

The talk will focus on a new product Amyris has developed, namely the zero-calorie sweetener Rebaudioside M (RebM). RebM is found naturally at low concentrations in the plant Stevia rebaudiana, from which the alternative sweetener stevia is derived. Depending on the category of application, RebM is approximately 300 times sweeter than sucrose and does not have the metallic or licorice flavors typically associated with stevia extracts. In fact, the taste profile of RebM is so remarkably similar to sucrose that RebM is the most desirable zero-calorie sweetener on the market today. However, RebM comprises < 1% of the total steviol glycosides produced by the stevia plant, making purification prohibitively difficult and expensive. Amyris has engineered a yeast strain to convert cane sugar to pure RebM, and in December of 2018 Amyris launched RebM as a new commercial ingredient. In December 2019, Amyris launched its own consumer brand, Purecane with RebM as its hero ingredient. Since its launch, the Purecane brand has earned a number of awards, including Popular Science, Top 100 Greatest Innovations of 2020 and Fast Company, Most Innovative Brand of 2021.