Developing an innovative biotechnological process that allows the conversion of waste materials such as lignin and wheat bran into products with high added value such as amino acids: this is the objective of the 'Meat from wood' project, financed by the Ministry of University and Research as part of the Prin 2022 call, led by Marco Vanoni of the University of Milan-Bicocca and conducted in collaboration with a research unit led by Elena Rosini in the The Protein Factory 2.0 laboratory of the University of Insubria.
The starting point for the research are two by-products available cheaply and in large quantities in Italy: lignin, which is little used in the paper industry and is regularly burned, and wheat bran.
In order for these biomasses to be used efficiently, their breakdown (depolymerization) and subsequent conversion into selected compounds is necessary.
'Meat from wood' aims to develop an innovative biotech process for the sustainable conversion of vanillin derived from lignin or wheat bran into amino acids, the basic components of proteins, attractive and promising biochemical substances with a constantly growing market.
"The project - explain Rosini and Vanoni - intends to produce bacterial cells that express all the enzymatic activities required for the synthesis of amino acids, thus providing a new sustainable approach to the valorisation of these biomasses. In fact, the availability of a series of activities ' enzymatic processes organized into new metabolic pathways, designed specifically for the synthesis of specific molecules, will accelerate the development of further innovative synthetic biocatalytic processes starting from abundant renewable resources towards a sustainable bioeconomy".
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