851 
Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE) has announced that it will participate in the EU-funded PROMYS research project. The project has a duration of four years and a total EU funding of €7.2 million (CHF 8.9 million), of which Evolva’s share is 9.8%. The project is the latest of a series of EU collaborations that Evolva has been awarded with partners.
The PROMYS project is part of the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme for Research (‘FP7’). The project’s goal is to implement a novel platform technology termed ligand responsive regulation and selection systems. This technology will be applied to deliver increased fermentation yields by continuously selecting for high yielding cell factories within a fermentation population. The other participants in the PROMYS project are the Technical University of Denmark and the universities of Darmstadt (Germany), Groningen (Netherlands) and Warwick (UK). Apart from Evolva, companies from Spain (Bacmine S.L.) and Denmark (Biosynthia ApS) are participating.
Evolva’s role in the project will be to construct a yeast that is able to produce high yields of a taste modulating ingredient. The biosynthetic pathway to this ingredient will be used in other parts of the project. The ingredient is also commercially attractive in its own right. Apart from the grant received, Evolva will retain the right to commercialise the fermentation-derived product.
Neil Goldsmith, Evolva’s CEO, commented, “PROMYS clearly shows the European Union’s commitment to synthetic biology as an innovative, sustainable alternative production method. The fact that the PROMYS application came in 1st among 131 in the selection procedure, confirms the participants’ leading position in this space. We are looking forward to working with academia and corporates in this ground-breaking project.”
Evolva is involved in a number of collaborative research projects, partially funded by the EU or other institutions, and is highly committed to the generation and sharing of knowledge in our scientific area. In total, Evolva has dedicated some 5 FTEs to such projects, or close to 6% of the R&D staff. Additional information on the key projects is available on Evolva’s website.
