French-German biotech firm SMEY has unveiled Lipid Atlas, an AI-driven platform designed to assist firms uncover and produce industrial oils and fat via fermentation. Constructed on a proprietary library of greater than 1,000 pure yeast strains, the system replaces agriculture with precision biology, providing a brand new method to supply key lipids for cosmetics, meals, and specialty chemical compounds.
As we speak, fewer than 20 plant oils, resembling palm, cocoa, and soybean, assist a world market price over $480 billion. This slim base exposes industries to local weather shocks, geopolitical dangers, and fragile provide chains. Lipid Atlas modifications that by analysing genomic information to foretell which yeast strains can produce particular fatty-acid profiles, successfully performing as a “periodic desk of oils.”
“Ark of Noah” for fermented oils
SMEY’s platform is powered by its Neobank of Yeasts (NOY), a set of pure, non-GMO strains that act as an “Ark of Noah” for fermented oils. As an alternative of extracting components from crops, firms can now establish yeast able to producing each identified and completely new lipid compositions.
Up to now, greater than 350 oil profiles have been mapped, vastly increasing the business’s choices. Some yeast strains can accumulate as much as 80% of their dry weight as oil, making large-scale manufacturing in bioreactors viable and unbiased of land or harvest cycles.
This strategy has already produced tangible improvements. Noyl Silk, SMEY’s flagship fermented oil, introduces a singular lipid construction designed for enhanced performance. In the meantime, Noyl Omega-7 delivers over 40% palmitoleic acid, a fatty acid naturally present in human sebum, in a light-weight, colour-neutral format fitted to cosmetics.
€8M funding to gasoline improvement
In the mean time, that is primarily a know-how launch, however SMEY is in energetic discussions with traders as the corporate scales its fermentation platform and industrial partnerships.
So far, SMEY has raised €8 million in whole funding. Round half of that funding has been devoted to creating the corporate’s core discovery infrastructure, the Neobank of Yeasts (NOY) and the Lipid Atlas know-how.
Visionary founder behind this concept
SMEY was based by Viktor Sartakov-Korzhov in 2022, with a mission to unlock microbial variety for industrial use. By combining AI, genomics, and fermentation, the corporate is constructing a brand new basis for supplies discovery.
Lipid Atlas indicators a broader shift, one the place oils are now not constrained by what agriculture can present, however are as a substitute engineered on the microbial degree for efficiency, scalability, and resilience.
Actual-world functions
The know-how helps firms discover or design oils with particular purposeful properties. As we speak, producers are restricted to the oils agriculture produces. With Lipid Atlas they’ll establish yeast strains that naturally produce oils with particular fatty acid profiles, desired melting factors, higher oxidative stability, and improved pores and skin compatibility
It’s use circumstances embrace, cosmetics firms can uncover oils with higher pores and skin absorption or texture; meals firms can establish fat with particular melting behaviour for merchandise like chocolate or bakery; and oleochemical firms can discover lipid constructions helpful for specialty supplies.
As an alternative of relying solely on commodity oils resembling palm or soybean, these firms can discover a whole bunch of different lipid profiles and choose ones that match their technical wants.
How about competitors
There are a number of firms engaged on fermentation-derived oils, however none providing a comparable data-driven lipid discovery know-how.
Most gamers within the area deal with producing one particular molecule (for instance a single oil or ingredient). SMEY’s strategy is completely different: it combines a big microbial library, lipid mapping, and AI prediction to find and design many various oils.
Examples of adjoining firms embrace:
- Xylome develops fermentation-derived components together with cocoa butter options.
- NoPalm Elements produces palm oil options via microbial fermentation.
- C16 Biosciences creates fermentation-derived palm oil substitutes utilizing engineered microbes.
- Gattefossé develops plant-based and specialty lipids for cosmetics and pharma.
- Lubrizol via its Algapur microalgae platform produces specialty oils for cosmetics.
- Algae Oil Improvements develops algae-derived oils for diet and specialty functions.
Nonetheless, none present a searchable know-how that maps a whole bunch of lipid profiles from pure yeast variety, which is what makes Lipid Atlas distinctive.
