Green Biologics is Awarded £185k Grant to engineer bacterial host for biobutanol production

In the UK, Green Biologics announced it has been awarded grant funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), the UK’s innovation agency, to engineer a novel bacterial host for biobutanol production. The project is in collaboration with the Clostrida Research Group (CRG) at the University of Nottingham which are funded by the Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The total project costs are £492k made up from contributions by Green Biologics (£62k), TSB (£185k) and BBSRC (£245k). the project duration is 18 months and due to commence on 1st May 2013. The strategy focuses on the modification of a clostridia species (Clostridium pasteurianum) for the fast growing renewable chemicals market. The deliverable will be a novel engineered strain C. pasteurianum that ferments starch to butanol in high yield.