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Currently, recombinant proteins are typically produced by microorganisms in large steel bioreactors. But insects could become smarter, more economical hosts, says Antwerp-based startup FlyBlast, which genetically modifies black soldier flies to produce insulin and other valuable proteins.
But are there risks to the company’s initial strategy of targeting the nascent and cash-strapped cultured meat industry?
AgFunderNews (AFN) caught up with founder and CEO Johan Jacobs (JJ) at the Future Food Tech Summit in London to learn more…
D.D.: At FlyBlast, we have genetically modified the black soldier fly to produce human insulin and other recombinant proteins, as well as growth factors specifically designed for growing meat (using these expensive proteins in cell culture media).
Molecules such as insulin, transferrin, IGF1, FGF2 and EGF account for 85% of the cost of the culture medium. By mass producing these biomolecules in insect bioconversion facilities, we can reduce their cost by 95% and overcome this bottleneck.
The biggest advantage of black soldier flies [over genetically modified microorganisms as a means of producing such proteins] is that you can grow black soldier flies at scale and at low cost because an entire industry has scaled up the bioconversion of by-products into insect proteins and lipids. We’re just raising the level of technology and profitability because the value of these molecules is so high.
The capital cost [of expressing insulin in black soldier flies] is completely different from [the cost of precision fermentation using microorganisms], and the capital cost is covered by regular insect products. It’s just another revenue stream on top of all that. But you also have to consider that the molecules we’re targeting are specific animal proteins. It’s much easier to produce animal molecules in animals than in yeast or bacteria.
For example, in the feasibility study we first looked at whether insects have an insulin-like pathway. The answer is yes. The insect molecule is very similar to human or chicken insulin, so asking insects to produce human insulin is much easier than asking bacteria or plants, which do not have this pathway.
J.J.: We are focused on cultured meat, which is a market that still needs to be developed, so there are risks. But since two of my co-founders come from that market (several members of the FlyBlast team worked at the Antwerp-based artificial fat startup Peace of Meat, which was liquidated by its owner Steakholder Foods last year), we believe we have the skills to make this happen. That is one of the keys.
Cultured meat will eventually be available. It will definitely happen. The question is when, and this is a very important question for our investors, because they need profits in a reasonable time frame. So we are looking at other markets. We chose insulin as our first product because the market for a replacement was obvious. It is human insulin, it is cheap, it is scalable, so there is a whole market for diabetes.
But in essence, our technology platform is a great platform… On our technology platform, we can produce most animal-based molecules, proteins, and even enzymes.
We offer two forms of genetic enhancement services: we introduce entirely new genes into the black soldier fly’s DNA, allowing it to express molecules that do not naturally exist in this species, such as human insulin. But we can also overexpress or suppress existing genes in the wild-type DNA to alter properties such as protein content, amino acid profile, or fatty acid composition (through licensing agreements with insect farmers/processors).
DD: That’s a really good question, but two of my co-founders are in the cultured meat industry, and they believe that [finding cheaper cell culture ingredients like insulin] is the biggest problem in the industry, and that the industry also has a huge impact on the climate.
Of course, we’re also looking at the human pharmaceutical market and the diabetes market, but we need a bigger ship for that because just in terms of getting regulatory approval, you need $10 million to do the paperwork, and then you need to make sure you have the right molecule at the right purity, etc. We’re going to take a number of steps, and when we get to some point of validation, we can raise capital for the biopharma market.
J: It’s all about scaling. I ran an insect farming company [Millibeter, acquired by [now defunct] AgriProtein in 2019] for 10 years. So we looked at a lot of different insects, and the key was how to scale up production reliably and cheaply, and a lot of companies ended up going with black soldier flies or mealworms. Yeah, sure, you can grow fruit flies, but it’s really hard to grow them in large quantities in a cheap and reliable way, and some plants can produce 10 tons of insect biomass a day.
J.J.: So other insect products, insect proteins, insect lipids, etc., can technically be used in the normal insect value chain, but in some areas, because it is a genetically modified product, it will not be accepted as livestock feed.
However, there are many technological applications outside the food chain that can use proteins and lipids. For example, if you are producing industrial grease on an industrial scale, it does not matter whether the lipid is from a genetically modified source.
As for the manure [insect excrement], we have to be careful about transporting it to the fields because it contains traces of GMOs, so we pyrolyze it into biochar.
DD: Within a year… we had a stable breeding line expressing human insulin in extremely high yields. Now we need to extract the molecules and provide samples to our customers, and then work with the customers on what molecules they need next.
Post time: Dec-25-2024