Following on from the successful SynBio Mission in 2014, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the US, together with the AB-SIG and the BBSRC NiBB PHYCONET organised a Microalgae Mission for a number of academics and businesses to build transatlantic relationships in this area.Having authored the UK Roadmap for Algal Technologies, which strongly advocated for an open access facility for scale up of algal growth and processing, this was a marvelous opportunity to see first-hand how the ATP3 network of pilot plants operates. Our first visit took us to AzCati in Phoenix, where open ponds and closed PBRs are supported by an impressive lab facility at ASU Lightworks. At present, the facility operates predominately with public funding, moving towards a self-supporting model in the next five years. AzCati performs a range of projects, from contract research to collaborative R&D. One of the strengths of the ATP3 network is their data standardization which has been implemented from the beginning. Each site collects data in the same way, using the same metrics and the same reference standards. Algal research is often hampered by multifarious protocols and idiosyncratic data reporting, and this work enables cross-comparison between cultivation sites, which is vital to really get a handle on productivity. Through their location at Arizona State University, there is a skilled workforce and academic buy-in.Leaving Arizona behind and heading westwards to San Diego, we paid a visit to another algal pilot, this time Cal-CAB at UCSD, led by Stephen Mayfield. Alongside his academic group, Stephen is the founder of Sapphire Bioenergy and Triton, a bio-pharmaceutical company using algae as an expression system. Stephen is a charismatic and eloquent spokesperson for the field. While research and funding in the UK is tending towards high value chemicals, there is still a huge interest in bioenergy from algae. Armed with terrifying statistics on billions of dollars spent on oil exploration, Stephen puts forward a convincing case as to why the Green Revolution 2.0 matters more than ever.

Open pond at AzCati (Photo: Michelle Carter)

UK Algae Mission - The Momentum Keeps Growing!

As momentum on algal synthetic biology grows, and tools for genetic manipulation become more widely available, we will need to confront the question of how scale up should best be done. Contained, industrial biotechnology-type facilities are suitable for low volume products, but what about bulk commodities? The Mayfield group have been conducting some important experiments on open pond cultivation of Scenedesmus engineered to produce fluorescent proteins, to understand how lab strains may colonise environmental niches. By setting up nutrient-rich trap ponds at various distances from their cultivation facility, they measured how many of the labelled algae escaped and proliferated. While there was definite release, their preliminary results show that wild type microalgae from the surrounding environment were much faster growing than the lab strain. Experiments like these will be vital to comprehending the risks involved with GM scale up, but difficult to foresee in Europe.Synthetic Genomics have also been active in the area of microalgae, and we paid a visit to their headquarters where we had a fascinating demonstration of the Archetype software, which allows users to store, manage and analyse sequence data. The clean interface and power of the program left everyone secretly wishing they could be left alone for an hour to explore their favorite pathway or enzyme.Finally, we enjoyed two days at the Food and Fuel for the 21st Century conference at UCSD. This provided a great snapshot of current algal work: from understanding the fundamental biology of our chassis strains through transcriptomics, improving expression levels of protein to facilitate the creation of edible vaccines to dealing with wider issues of biofuel governance and impact.

Open pond at AzCati (Photo: Michelle Carter)Many of the algal companies we met are looking to astaxanthin as an early product to demonstrate proof of concept, but are anxious to create a pipeline. This really requires closer dialogue with the chemical and pharmaceuticals to identify targets which may benefit from either the properties of the algal expression host, or the sustainability improvements possible through phototrophic cultivation. Underpinning this is the creation of synthetic biology toolkits to work with a wider range of host strains, so we can benefit from the diversity of microalgae.