Plants produce a wide range of natural molecules with significant value in everyday products. These molecules, including aromatics, terpenoids, cannabinoids, and lipophilic molecules, are high-value products and are currently extracted from plants or are chemically synthesized. Both methods negatively affect the environment; we need cost-effective, sustainable alternative production strategies. By genetically engineering microorganisms as a ‘cell factory’, these natural products can be synthesized more sustainably. However, plant-derived natural products are toxic to these ‘cell factories’, and therefore, a biotechnological alternative is not achievable.
NICy will produce marketable natural molecules using a cost-effective, sustainable production process. NICy will create ‘cell factories’ for the production of toxic plant-derived products by precision strain engineering. Combined with innovative fermentation and extraction technologies, the ‘cell factories’ generated by NICy enable the synthesis of highly toxic compounds from basic starting materials through an extremely efficient, unique biotechnological process that easily outcompetes current plant extraction and chemical synthesis in sustainability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. The ultimate goal of NICy is to build a factory for the biosynthesis of toxic and lipophilic molecules.
