Is this the technology to win Kiwis over to genetic engineering? – Stuff

Youve heard of fermenting yeast to make beer, but what about brewing GM microbes to make bioplastic? Using designer microbes to make stuff in fermentation vats has been described as the next manufacturing revolution, with potential to produce everything from cow-free cheese to sustainable fossil fuel replacements. But is GE-free New Zealand ready for it?

Veronica Stevenson bet her house deposit on a bee.

Before using GM microbes to make stuff was all the talk (Impossible Burger, mRNA vaccines), Stevenson set out to find the genetic recipe for the plastic-like film that lines the nest of a solitary Aussie bee.

All she had to do was work out which bit of the bees DNA linked to the nest material and put that code into a micro-organism, which then makes it in a fermentation vat, or bioreactor.

READ MORE:* The secret to the perfect dairy free cheese could lie in lab grown milk protein* Snail farming, cricket flour, algae and lab-grown fish; Welcome to the brave new world of alternative protein* Fermentation might lead to a dairy protein to make fake milk* US testing begins on genetically modified ryegrass developed in NZ

Finding the bees was a nightmare. Sequencing the genome was tricky. Gathering funding was challenging (hence investing her house deposit).

Still, she overcame every obstacle.

Weve sequenced the genome. Weve expressed the genome in two microbial systems. So weve proven that we can make it. Which is a massive thing.

But when it came to the trial and error stage of perfecting the process, Stevenson ran into the legacy of New Zealands famously strict genetic engineering rules, which the Productivity Commission this month concluded failed to take into account tech advances, and should be reviewed.

Because the regulatory environment is what it is, theres just no infrastructure, Stevenson says. Just the ability to move through the product from concept to commercial viability.

http://www.flickr.com/us

The Australian native bee, Hylaeus Nubilosis, which lines its nest hole with a natural bioplastic.

In December, Stevensons company Humble Bee announced a six-month partnership with United States biotech company Gingko Bioworks.

Their automated system can test 3000-5000 gene variants, different microbial hosts and processes to devise the perfect formulation. Its the genetic equivalent of a sophisticated recipe tester, trying out thousands of tweaks to ingredients, quantities, or temperatures.

While New Zealand may never be able to justify a research facility on Gingkos scale, Stevenson is frustrated the country is not doing more to embrace the multibillion-dollar potential of synthetic biology.

In Australia, three or four years ago, they realised this was huge ... and they threw hundreds of millions of dollars at it. They have a centre for research excellence on it. They have a venture capital fund specifically for this space.

And New Zealand is like, its just not on the radar. Which is a real shame. I just feel like were missing out.

LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff

Nikki Freed and Irina Miller, co-founders of Daisy Lab, aim to create a milk protein in the lab.

While most Kiwis probably eat GM wheat, corn and soy in imported foods, the idea of releasing genetically engineered organisms is likely to remain a hard sell in New Zealand. Stevenson and many scientists argue we should at least have the conversation.

But the beauty of the technology behind Humble Bee is that the end product is not genetically modified.

Known as precision fermentation, the process is a hot topic because it can be used to make anything from fossil-free biofuels to the animal-free milk products that some predict will bring down the dairy industry.

Basically, you isolate the DNA sequence that encodes for something you want to make, insert it into a microbial host, which then produces it in a fermentation vat.

The product is then extracted and purified from the fermentation soup, or from the microbe itself.

The stuff were doing is not scary, says Stevenson. What were going to produce is not going to be released into the wild. Its not going to have an impact, interacting or sharing genes with other things. Its not going to cross-pollinate with something. Its an inert substance.

Its a big vat. You pull out whats expressed from the microbes and you give it to your biofabricators and they can make it into a film or turn it into a yarn. And then that gets incorporated into clothes. Its like synthetic spider silk.

It's not a new process its been used for 40 years to make insulin, as an alternative to extracting it from pig pancreases.

But the field is burgeoning now, because the comparative ease of genome sequencing and DNA synthesis means its suddenly accessible. Pfizer used it to make its Covid vaccines, and Impossible Foods ferments genetically engineered yeast to make the heme that gives its plant-based burger its meaty taste.

As Scions biotechnology research group leader Gareth Lloyd-Jones explains, 20-30 years ago you might get a PhD for cloning one gene.

Whereas now, you could probably in a month design an experiment to clone any gene, and order it, get somebody to synthesise the DNA for you, and deliver that in a form which you can put into the host, and the DNA vector you want to use to produce it.

All the technology around how you make it is cheaper. The amount of options as to what you can produce it in is broader. So everything has become so much bigger in terms of what you could think of doing.

So how is New Zealand placed to get its slice of the pie?

John Selkirk/Stuff

LanzaTech co-founder Sean Simpson says New Zealands restrictive GM regulations are technical masochism, preventing commercialisation of bright ideas.(File photo)

Remember LanzaTech, New Zealands biotech poster child, which in 2014 moved to the United States?

Founder Sean Simpson started out using a microbe that naturally converts carbon dioxide into ethanol in a process called gas fermentation. The idea was to capture carbon from industrial waste and transform it into a fossil fuel replacement a climate change double whammy.

But that was just the beginning. The real prize was to genetically engineer that microbe to make other things acetone or the starting materials for rubber or plastics.

But Simpson knew New Zealands regulations would prevent him doing that at scale. It wasnt the only factor that pushed him offshore, but it was a factor.

If we're going to use agricultural waste, societal waste, industrial waste to deliver sustainable fuels and chemicals, and replace oil, then biology has a significant part to play ... And New Zealand is basically saying, we don't want any part of that. Which is fascinating to me.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no ban on genetic modification here. You can apply under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (HSNO) to do genetic engineering, but it has to be done in containment. That means inside an approved and regularly audited facility.

That was never going to work for LanzaTechs industrial-scale bioreactors, and scientists say the approval process for GM development outside containment is so difficult it creates an effective moratorium. That closes off opportunities to turn great ideas into businesses, Simpson says.

Its not like we cannot undertake genetic manipulation in New Zealand. We can, and we do. We don't want to do it at a certain scale.

And I can't understand the justification for that. It's technical masochism. We're going to build a little bit of it, but when it gets really exciting, we're going to stop. If this could turn into something, we're not going to do it.

What Veronica has done is remarkable. But imagine the number of people who never even bothered to try and get that far, because of the hurdle that they knew was ahead of them.

Supplied

Kiwi Matt Gibson took his company making animal-free dairy mozzarella to San Francisco, after struggling to get it off the ground in New Zealand.

In Matt Gibsons profile pic, hes proudly sporting a vintage All Blacks jersey. But the New Culture founder is beaming in from San Francisco, where hes developing animal-free dairy mozzarella.

Dairy cheese has a terrible environmental footprint, making it a prime target for sustainability advocates, Gibson says. But the plant-based alternatives are pretty awful.

But what if you could cut out the middle gal the cow and make dairy cheese without the climate guilt?

Milk protein casein gives cheese its character the melt, the stretch, the flavour.

So thats what Gibson makes, using precision fermentation. He genetically engineers microbes to produce casein in fermentation tanks.

The extracted and purified casein is the same as casein from milk, and its not GM. The genetic manipulation occurs only in the process, not the product. Its then combined with plant-based fats and transformed into mozzarella through traditional cheesemaking.

Hes hoping to start selling commercially next year.

We are making animal-free dairy cheese today. Were making a lot of it. It melts, it stretches, it browns. It does everything youd expect dairy mozzarella to do.

But it wont be doing any of those things in New Zealand.

Supplied

New Cultures animal-free mozzarella melts, stretches and browns the same as the cow-made version.

Gibson started New Culture in Auckland in 2018.

He needed a lab for initial experimentation, but universities werent interested (he didnt want to sponsor a PhD student and lose control of the intellectual property). Commercial labs were keen to help, but their GM approvals were too narrow.

I just realised there was no way I could do any work, without having to get my own certification and set up my own lab, and that would cost a lot of money, compared to the United States, where nothing like that is required.

After six months of trying, I realised it was a fruitless endeavour.

So he moved to San Francisco, where he joined the IndieBio accelerator programme.

And now hes making cheese and New York Times headlines far from home.

Ultimately, if New Zealand doesnt embrace this, they are going to be left behind, and the future of dairy is going to be elsewhere, and it will be a shame.

Mike Scott/Stuff

Some predict animal-free dairy made using precision fermentation could spell the death of the dairy industry.

Reports of the dairy industrys imminent death have been greatly exaggerated.

Non-dairy products make up 15 per cent of the US dairy market, and a think tank report suggested animal-free dairy could kill off the cow milk industry by 2035.

That, says Gibson, is fantasy. His back-of-an-envelope calculation estimates just replacing New Zealands dairy output would require pretty much every existing fermentation tank in the world.

Its not going to happen in 10 years.

But its still a major risk for a country that relies so heavily on white gold, Gibson says.

The risk is that the economys biggest or second-biggest industry is going to become obsolete. Theres still going to be some demand for animal-derived dairy, but ultimately its going to become a niche product, and youre going to put a lot of people out of work.

Auckland Universitys 2020 Future of Food report notes international calls to swap from ruminant-based foods to plant-based ones could significantly affect the acceptability of New Zealands pastoral products in some markets.

The Ministry for Primary Industries, however, does not see novel methods for producing protein as a replacement for traditional forms. Any food produced with genetic modification also needs special Food Standards approval in New Zealand.

But the opportunities are much broader than just food. Australias Synthetic Biology Road Map estimates the technology of which precision fermentation is one part could be worth $27 billion a year and 44,000 jobs in Australia by 2040.

Whangarei Leader

Is precision fermentation the technology to win Kiwis over to GM?

But are GE-Free flag-waving Kiwi consumers ready to embrace genetic modification as a process rather than a product?

Humble Bees bioplastic is just one example of the technologys potential environmental wins providing more sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based products.

That means it has potential to win over the greenies who have traditionally opposed genetic modification.

Theres also a new generation of Kiwis who did not grow up in the shadow of GE-free placards. In 2019, 150 scientists aged under 30 signed an open letter to the Green Party asking them to reconsider their anti-GE stance.

Greenpeace does not oppose laboratory fermentation that does not result in environmental release of viable GM organisms. But they dont want to wait for lab-based food to reduce climate emissions.

Strong anti-GM voice The Sustainability Council would not say whether it opposes precision fermentation in principle, or its use to make casein, saying it has to assess every case separately. Executive director, Simon Terry, says using genetically modified organisms to aid fermentation is less risky for the environment than GM crops.

However, it should not be exempt from regulation, and the benefits should still have to outweigh the risks.

LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff

It would be cheaper and easier to make animal-free dairy products almost anywhere else in the world, but Daisy Lab co-founder Nikki Freed is confident they can do it within New Zealands tough regulations.

One of the first questions potential investors ask about casein-culturing Kiwi startup Daisy Lab is Why would you be doing this in New Zealand? says co-founder Irina Miller.

Our response has always been well, yes, it is challenging. But its not impossible.

Both Miller and co-founder Nikki Freed are foreigners. They know it would be cheaper and easier to build their company just about anywhere else. But they want to do it here.

Im very interested in sustainability, says Freed, who is also the lead technologist at Auckland Universitys genomics facility. We want to see New Zealand succeed and become a great, green place for our kids to live.

Miller toyed with the idea of making animal-free dairy in 2016/17, while working for Fonterra. She figured someone else would do it. But when no-one did, she started Daisy Lab, in 2020.

LAWRENCE SMITH

Freed and Daisy Lab co-founder Irina Miller have been surprised at the lack of anti-GM feedback to their plans. (File photo)

The environmental gains from switching from cow udders to fermentation tanks could be huge, with one estimate finding it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 91 to 97 per cent. There are no accurate estimates for New Zealands pasture-based farming.

Microbes still need to eat. Still researching at tiny scale, Daisy Lab is feeding its microbes pretty much pure sugar. But ultimately they hope to use food waste. If precision fermentation took off, farmers could grow sugar beets to feed the countrys army of micro-organisms.

Daisy Labs long-term vision is to tap into the dairy industrys supply chain for powdered milk, which is 80 per cent casein and makes up 95 per cent of all our milk exports. Farmers could be like micro-brewers, growing fermentation feed and making milk protein without the cow.

Freed and Miller have been surprised at the lack of backlash to their plans. Thats partly because people understand they wont actually be eating GMOs. But Freed thinks its also about their motivations.

At the heart of what were trying to do, is make a better planet. Were trying to improve sustainability. Were trying to improve animal welfare...Traditionally, other GMO have gotten a bad rap, because its more about making those seeds farmers have to buy each year. Its profit-driven.

Sarah Brook/Stuff

Synthase Biotech managing director Andy West says New Zealand could be making more high-value enzymes using precision fermentation. (File photo)

Read the original:
Is this the technology to win Kiwis over to genetic engineering? - Stuff