Fermelanta: Pioneering Production of Rare Plant Compounds Through Microbial Fermentation

From essential pharmaceuticals like morphine to valuable ingredients in food and cosmetics, various plant compounds and secondary metabolites have remained challenging to produce via microbial fermentation. However, Japanese startup Fermelanta believes it has discovered a revolutionary solution.

AgFunderNews (AFN) recently spoke with CEO Shogo Fukizaki (SF) and Business Development Manager Lucas Mixich, PhD (LM) at the Future Food-Tech conference in San Francisco. They discussed engineering complex plant pathways into microbes, scaling the production of rare natural ingredients, and how their multi-gene platform could transform markets across pharmaceuticals, food flavors, and fragrances.

What is Fermelanta’s Mission?

LM: We have refined our processes to enable companies to produce existing ingredients with greater efficiency and lower costs. Additionally, our technology allows entry into new markets that were previously inaccessible.

A Technical Breakthrough

AFN: Fermelanta has succeeded in reproducing the enzymatic pathways needed to produce secondary plant metabolites within microbial systems by incorporating an unprecedented number of plant genes into a single bacterial cell. How many genes are we talking about?

LM: We’ve introduced more than 20, nearly 30 genes into a single strain. The advantage of this approach is that we can conduct a single fermentation step for production. If these were divided into several steps, efficiency would suffer; our method streamlines access to complex molecules that were previously unattainable in microbial systems.

SF: The ability to introduce so many genes is crucial. We have developed a proprietary tool to do this efficiently, opting not to use patented techniques like CRISPR. Conventional technologies generally manage to create simple molecules or proteins requiring just one or two genes, whereas Fermelanta can introduce multiple genes—expanding our pipeline significantly.

Focus Areas for Ingredient Development

AFN: What specific ingredients are currently the focus for Fermelanta?

LM: Our founders have been working for the past two decades on creating strains that can produce rare ingredients for essential medicines like morphine. Recently, interest in rare ingredients has surged across other sectors, including culinary and cosmetic markets. While we focus internally on essential medicines, we are open to collaborating with external companies in food, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics to explore ingredient opportunities.

Why Not Plant Cell Culture?

AFN: For some rare plant-derived ingredients, wouldn’t it be more logical to produce them using plant cell cultures?

LM: It may seem logical; however, plant cells typically grow slowly, making efficient processes challenging. In contrast, the E. coli strains we utilize grow rapidly and are easy to culture, making them a cost-effective production platform. This allows us to modify them extensively and serves as a reliable solution for producing a wide array of natural products without relying on the slow growth of specific plant cells.

Leveraging Decades of Research

AFN: Fermelanta is a relatively new company, founded in 2022. How are you leveraging the extensive academic research behind your work?

LM: The founders have been engineering bacterial strains for over 20 years, focusing on manipulating and controlling E. coli at a fundamental level. Although we are a young company, we utilize this foundational knowledge to build a robust platform capable of producing valuable ingredients.