About

Currently it is difficult to create natural molecules from plants in a way that’s both scalable and sustainable. These molecules are mainly obtained by growing plants in fields, but the process of extracting them only yields very small amounts from each plant. For example, producing just 1 gram of vinblastine for chemotherapy requires half a ton of dry leaves from the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), which makes the process both expensive and environmentally unfriendly.

Creating recombinant proteins is complex, costly and difficult to produce a final product that is contaminant free. These proteins are usually produced using either bacterial (Escherichia coli) or mammalian (usually Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO)) cell cultures. These bioproduction systems are complex and expensive. Mammalian cell cultures often use animal-derived media, which means that the final product must be thoroughly purified to prevent any risk of virus or prion transmission.

As the demand for these high-value molecules continues to grow, there is a growing need to produce them at scale, in a cost-effective, more controlled and environmentally sustainable way.