GreenLab and Ginkgo Bioworks announced a new partnership. Together, GreenLab and Ginkgo aim to enable production of brazzein, a sweet-tasting protein found in the fruit of the native West African Oubli plant, at commercial scale. The two companies have previously partnered on a project to develop an enzyme for GreenLab's PFAS degradation application.

The global sugar replacement market is growing due to increased consumer demand. Sugar substitutes can help manage obesity, but some artificial sweeteners have been linked to various health issues including heart disease. Novel sweeteners ?

like brazzein, which has a sweetness factor up to 2,000 times greater than sucrose ? can be used as natural substitutes for sugar in products across the food and beverage industry. GreenLab hopes to revolutionize the sweetener industry with brazzein.

Its proprietary technology allows it to grow enzymes and other proteins inside of corn kernels. By producing proteins in a cultivated crop, GreenLab can readily scale production across acres of cornfields, with little additional up-front capital and infrastructure. After the protein of interest is extracted from the kernel with minimal waste, most of the corn used will then proceed along the existing value chain, including food, feed or fuel.

Thanks to its proprietary technology, GreenLab currently has two transformative enzymes in commercial production, including manganese peroxidase and laccase, and has already successfully grown corn containing brazzein. GreenLab is leveraging Ginkgo's capabilities to scale up its production of brazzein in three ways: One, using Ginkgo Plant Trait Services to improve GreenLab's expression of brazzein in the corn kernel to achieve economically-competitive levels. Two, using font-size: 10pt;Ginkgo Protein Services to express brazzein in a microbial chassis via precision fermentation.

And three, using font-size: 10pt;Ginkgo Deployment Capabilities to develop downstream processes to purify brazzein from both the corn kernel and fermentation broth. By pursuing these pathways to brazzein production, GreenLab intends to be the preeminent supplier of brazzein to food and beverage companies, all while reducing market and technical risk.