Willow Biosciences Inc.

Published purpose

The overall objective of this project is to generate an optimized, high-yielding, commercial-scale alkaloid production technology based on yeast fermentation using existing Epimeron IP and building on previous R&D such as NRC-IRAP Projects 834944 and 861555. Although previous work has established a small-scale system capable of turning over alkaloid product, the yields fall short of commercial level titers (e.g. >10g/L). This proposal aims to (i) address dominant problems with current yeast production strains and (ii) improve titers, using inexpensive starting materials, to reach commercially feasible levels. Collaboration with a fermentation-specialized partnering firm will enable technology development in a scaled-up context.