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MicroNiche - Model MNE -Engineering Ccombines Materials Science and Microbiology
MicroNiche Engineering combines materials science and microbiology in a way the world has never seen before. As our exclusive, in silico development platform, we use MNE to create natural habitats, or microniches, which optimize the performance of organisms in industrial bioprocesses. The outcome is remarkably simple. Nearly any organism for nearly any bioprocess — deployed in the versatile format of an MNE biocatalyst composite.
MNE WORKS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
In natural microbiomes, such as soil, organisms have evolved over billions of years in close associations, or communities. Since the advent of molecular analysis, an unprecedented diversity of organisms and metabolic pathways have been discovered. Mechanisms like quorum sensing, altruistic behaviors, horizontal gene transfer, and cryptic growth help make organism communities much more than the sum of their parts. Through MNE, we are able to design, optimize and deploy organism communities to take advantage of these and other mechanisms — with surprisingly novel and impactful results.
MNE INTENSIFIES BIOLOGY USING FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS SCIENCE
MNE is based on the use of materials science as a vector to influence the autonomous behavior and organization of organism communities and pathways. The organisms sense the properties of the microenvironments created using MNE. Because MNE enhances natural elements of synergy between organisms, it provides a super-dense, stable, and robust population. The materials used in MNE can also provide functional advantages, such as enabling the rapid transport of substrates and products, modulating the concentrations of toxic compounds, and responding in real-time to abrupt changes in operation.
MNE PROVIDES FIT-FOR-PROCESS BIOCATALYST COMPOSITES FOR NEARLY ANY PROCESS
Every MNE biocatalyst is designed with the end-use process in mind. In many cases, MNE biocatalysts are "drop-in" to the reactor or vessel in an existing infrastructure. The composites themselves can take a variety of forms, including spheres, sheets, hollow fibers, and other geometric configurations suitable for the application. The industrial application of MNE biocatalysts is similarly flexible as its compositions. Our initial focus has been on the water and chemical industries to convert a number of flexible inputs into valuable outputs. These include producing clean water from ground and surface water, recovering valuable nutrients like phosphorus from wastewater, and converting a variety of solid and gaseous feedstocks into fuels, chemical intermediates, and specialty chemicals.