Abstract
SummaryA goal of synthetic biology bio‐foundries is to innovate through an iterative design/build/test/learn pipeline. In assessing the value of new chemical production routes, the intellectual property (IP) novelty of the pathway is important. Exploratory studies can be carried using knowledge of the patent/IP landscape for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. In this paper, we perform an assessment of pathways as potential targets for chemical production across the full catalogue of reachable chemicals in the extended metabolic space of chassis organisms, as computed by the retrosynthesis‐based algorithm RetroPath. Our database for reactions processed by sequences in heterologous pathways was screened against the PatSeq database, a comprehensive collection of more than 150M sequences present in patent grants and applications. We also examine related patent families using Derwent Innovations. This large‐scale computational study provides useful insights into the IP landscape of synthetic biology for fine and specialty chemicals production.
Highlights
Efficient and sustainable microbial production through cell factory synthetic biology is a promising enabling technology in the transition from an economy based on fossil fuels towards an economy based on renewable biomass resources (SBLC, 2016)
Recent advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology have led to an increase in the portfolio of both key building block chemicals and fine chemicals that can be microbially produced from biomass feedstock (Curran and Alper, 2012)
Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology, Microbial Biotechnology, 9, 687–695
Summary
Efficient and sustainable microbial production through cell factory synthetic biology is a promising enabling technology in the transition from an economy based on fossil fuels towards an economy based on renewable biomass resources (SBLC, 2016). We perform a patent analysis of biosynthetic pathways for fine chemicals to explore the innovation landscape of metabolic design for microbial synthetic production.
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