Angel Yeast is spearheading an initiative that unites universities and enterprises to form an innovative consortium dedicated to advancing synthetic biology technology. This initiative also accelerates the construction of the Xiaoting Synthetic Biology Industrial Park in Yichang, in Hubei province, China. The goal is to establish an integrated industry chain, starting with yeast production and extending through fermentation raw materials, bio-manufacturing, and product application. By 2035, this initiative aims to develop a CNY 50-billion (USD 6.89 billion) industry cluster.
In the era of rapid technology development, synthetic biology has been coined “the third biological science revolution”. It makes each cell a “super factory” that can continuously produce specific substances after targeted modification, to be widely used in the manufacturing of food, medicine, biochemicals, new materials and more. At present, yeast is one of the most applicable microbial cell factory platforms with high editability and controllability.
As a global leader in the field of yeast R&D and production, Angel Yeast has been laying out the industry roadmap for synthetic biology to accelerate its development. With this in mind, the Xiaoting Synthetic Biology Industrial Park was unveiled in 2023 and the consortium was founded in May 2024.
“The consortium will focus on tackling the bottlenecks of core technologies, advancing the development of bio-based materials, pharmaceutical intermediates, biomass sugar and more following market-oriented operation strategies, while actively promoting to develop the standards for synthetic biology and layout for acquiring invention patents of the industry,” said Zhang Yan, dean of the Angel Yeast Research Institute.
The yeast extract production of the project requires more than 100 kilograms of enzymes per day, supplied by Angel Yeast’s enzyme preparation operations. The first phase of the project is now in production to manufacture vitamin K2, pyrroloquinoline quinone disodium salt, phosphatidylserine and other products.
