U of T Technology & Startup Explorer

A cost-effective method for producing chitobiose using genetically modified bacteria. Researchers have used Streptomyces venezuelae, which possesses several secretable chitinolytic enzymes, to extracellularly convert chitin to chitobiose. Key to the invention is the knockout of chitobiose transporter proteins, which severely impairs the ability of the bacterium to import the chitobiose into the cell, leaving the metabolite available for harvesting from the highly enriched culture media.

Serum-free, T-cell media of comparable expansion potential to serum-based formulations. Using an AI-based, media-optimization algorithm (HiDiNeu) they optimized 14 factors to yield numerous high-performing media formulations.