South Dakota Mines has received a $500,000 National Science Foundation seed
grant to establish a cell-free manufacturing lab with the goal of researching
the development of biodegradable plastics and other biomaterial precursors.
Mines is the fifth
university in the country to establish cell-free research infrastructure,
joining MIT, Harvard University, Northwestern University and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
The research will be led by
Tanvi Govil, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and
Biological Engineering. Rajesh Sani, Ph.D, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and David Salem, Ph.D., professor in the Department of
Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, are the other two co-principal investigators in the research.
“South Dakota Mines will be
the first amongst the universities to explore this technology for driving
innovations towards synthesizing next-gen biopolymers and biomaterial
precursors,” Govil says. Biomaterial precursors are the building blocks in
making bioplastics and any biologically made material.
In the traditional process of using cellular platforms, unfortunately
there are constraints associated with maintaining the cell viability and
limitations on the maximum product quantity to nontoxic concentrations, Govil
explains. In the cell-free
approach, scientists don’t need to keep the cells alive, which means less
infrastructure is needed compared to cellular bioprocessing. The cell-free
approach also overcomes barriers associated with low microbial yields of
intracellular products and minimizes chemical usage in downstream
extractions/purifications of microbial products. Ideally it should also reduce costs.
“It also gives more flexibility to be used as on-demand biomanufacturing
platforms” Govil says.
The cell-free manufacturing
approach takes all the expression machinery of the microbes out of the cell and
into test tubes or similar in-vitro reactions. “The cell -free expression
systems therefore have some advantages at the level of biosecurity and
biosafety,” Govil adds.
Govil’s specific research
will focus on creating nylon, rubber and Polyether ether Ketone (PEEK)
bio-precursors (the ingredients to create a product) which can then be used to
develop their bio-derived versions that are biodegradable. “This is a newer
approach, an emerging approach,” she says.
Govil’s research will
identify the challenges in the cell-free approach and work to alleviate those
challenges in order to design, create and manufacture the next
generation of bioplastic precursors, biomedicine therapeutics, biofuels and
high-end functional precision food previously unattainable through traditional
approaches.
“I will be making products
… that have the potential to replace the fossil fuel dependent-based plastics,”
she says. “Products that would be 100% biodegradable.”