Fighting Climate Change with Synthetic Biology

Abstract

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology NewsVol. 42, No. 10 GENEDGEFree AccessFighting Climate Change with Synthetic BiologyCemvita Factory generates cost-effective, low-carbon solutions that net climate-positive resultsJonathan D. Grinstein, PhDJonathan D. Grinstein, PhDSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:25 Oct 2022https://doi.org/10.1089/gen.42.10.02AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail querbeet / Getty ImagesIn synthetic biology, microbes are given new skills. Since 1978, when the first synthetic, genetically modified “human” insulin was manufactured using Escherichia coli, synthetic biology has fundamentally changed how we produce specialty products such as pharmaceuticals, fragrances, cosmetics, and, more recently, food—including artificial meat.Synthetic biology is also positioned as a potent weapon in the fight against climate change. Houston-based Cemvita is a synthetic biology platform company that is on a mission to reduce the environmental impact of numerous heavy industries—from mining to oil and gas. The company uses technology to enable carbon-neutral chemical synthesis, bioextraction of metals, the use of waste as a feedstock for energy and chemical products, and hydrogen production.Over the past few months, Cemvita has announced major partnerships with sustainable fuel and biosolutions companies to extract critical minerals. In March 2022, Cemvita teamed up with United Airlines Ventures (UAV) and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) to commercialize the production of sustainable aviation fuel developed through a revolutionary new process that uses carbon dioxide and synthetic microbes. A month later, Cemvita announced a collaboration with Fluor Corporation to accelerate the design, development, optimization, and scale-up of new sustainable processes to unlock metal extraction from low-grade or recalcitrant ore bodies and even waste products.Cemvita is made up of scientists, engineers, and businesspeople committed to environmental science, energy, and mining technology. GEN Edge interviewed Moji Karimi, Cemvita's co-founder and CEO, about the company's origins, mission, vision, and name, as well as its approach to partnerships and business acquisitions.Cemvita Factory was co-founded by Moji Karimi (left) and Tara Karimi, DVM, PhD (right). They serve the company as CEO and CTO, respectively.GEN Edge: How was Cemvita founded?Karimi: I come from the energy industry but became interested in multidisciplinary sciences. I saw an opportunity with a startup company that wanted to commercialize DNA sequencing in the oil and gas industry.I thought that was fascinating and ended up joining them. We were building a 23andMe-like map for the subsurface, looking at the DNA of microbes in oil, rock, and water, and our main investor was Illumina.While this happened, I started talking more with my sister Tara Karimi, my co-founder at Cemvita. She came from a biotech background and worked at the Texas Medical Center doing tissue engineering and stem cell programming. We never imagined an angle where we could work with each other because our backgrounds were so far apart—but DNA sequencing brought us together! She taught me that DNA sequencing is an essential tool in synthetic biology, and that it can help the biotech industry address energy transition challenges. We're trying to reduce costs, add efficiencies, leverage the inherent sustainability that is built into biology, and help companies reduce their carbon and environmental footprints.GEN Edge: What is Cemvita's business model?Karimi: We're a platform company. The solutions that we're developing are across three different themes. First, we want to enable sustainable extraction of natural resources such as hydrocarbons and metals. In the future, I think many companies will pay close attention to lowering the environmental and carbon footprints of the mineral extraction processes needed for renewable energy.Second, we're pursuing the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels through biomanufacturing to reduce Scope 1 emissions [greenhouse gases that companies emit directly when they run engines, furnaces, etc.] and make these processes low-carbon. Third, we want to sustainably use any waste products from extraction and production processes, turning them into sources of value and closing the carbon loop.These three themes feed our platform with three distinct business units. The first is low-carbon biomanufacturing. That's where we have all the carbon-based chemistries. We're very excited about three possibilities: bioethylene (produced using carbon dioxide as a feedstock), sustainable aviation fuel (produced in partnership with United and Oxy), and renewable natural gas.The second vertical is biomining—using microbes for sustainable and more efficient extraction of energy transition metals, especially copper and lithium. The third is what we call subsurface biomanufacturing. The flagship project we have there is “gold hydrogen”—a new way of biologically producing hydrogen that uses microbes in the subsurface.The business model depends on the pathway. For some, it's through partnerships, like our partnership with United and Oxy to produce sustainable aviation fuel. In other cases, we will license the technology or go deeper and become owner-operators, depending on the structure.GEN Edge: What is the meaning behind the company name, Cemvita?Karimi: When we started thinking about starting the company, Tara—the brain behind what we do—was writing a book for Springer titled Molecular Mechanisms of Autonomy in Biological Systems: Relativity of Code, Energy, and Mass. She was trying to explain how it is that living things can self-regulate, self-fuel, and eventually become autonomous—whether humans or microbes. One of the principles she explains is the relativity of code, energy, and mass in living systems. By contrast, in nonliving things, you have only relativity of energy and mass.In living things, there is that third element: If you put an apple seed in the right environment, it activates and starts growing because of the information—DNA—stored in that seed. But DNA is not just information. It also has mass; therefore, it also has energy. In living things, code, energy, and mass (the “Cem” in Cemvita) always transform into each other. Then “vita” means “life” in Latin. We at Cem-vita convert different kinds of energy and mass to other types of energy and mass, and it's governed by the code, which involves the genetic engineering we do inside microbes, with the microbes being the vehicles for transformation.Read the full original article online. GENengnews.com/gen-edge-latestGEN Edge is GEN's premium subscription news service for exclusive coverage and insights of critical interest to the movers and shakers of the biotech/life sciences industry. Stay at the forefront with a 30-day free trial. GENengnews.com/gen-edgeFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 42Issue 10Oct 2022 Information© 2022 by GEN PublishingTo cite this article:Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD.Fighting Climate Change with Synthetic Biology.Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.Oct 2022.12-13.http://doi.org/10.1089/gen.42.10.02Published in Volume: 42 Issue 10: October 25, 2022PDF download