IBISBA - A Systems-oriented Research Infrastructure in Industrial Biotechnology | IBISBA - une infrastructure de recherche pour une approche systémique en biotechnologie industrielle

International audience

Английский. Biomanufacturing is emerging at global scale as a key enabling technology for the circular bioeconomy and for green growth. The drivers for this trend are numerous, but are tightly linked on one hand to a steady flow of scientific discoveries over the last 70 years and, on the other hand, to increasing socio-political pressure to address grand challenges such as climate change and environmental depreciation. Nevertheless, bringing biomanufacturing to maturity and delivering it at scale is a tremendous task, in part because it is frequently placed in an economic faceoff with the highly optimized, efficient petrochemical industry, which for over a century has satisfied global demand with fossil-based goods that address a wide range of markets.The future success of biotechnology hinges on many factors, but cost is a major one. However, cost reduction will only be possible if new progress is made in all phases, including the early translation of fundamental knowledge into prototypes and innovations. Currently, during these vital phases biotechnology R&D occurs in silo mode, separating biocatalyst design (e.g. cell factory construction) from the process in which the biocatalyst will operate, and from the upstream and downstream processes that will critically affect cost.To progress in biotechnology and accelerate the development of fit-for-purpose bioprocesses, it is urgent to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge, creating a ‘biotechnology knowledge commons’ that covers all process steps. Likewise, it is necessary to devise a new work culture that favours the integration of biology, chemical engineering and computational sciences, providing the basis for novel approaches that begin at the end (i.e., analysing target product functions) and work backwards to biocatalyst design. To achieve these goals, the development of adequate standards, the implementation of appropriate governance schemes and the use of advanced computational methods (e.g. artificial intelligence) are some of the ingredients for success. Combining these in an innovation ecosystem can be a powerful way to accelerate the translation of biotechnology from the laboratory to the market.In this presentation, I will describe IBISBA, a pan-European research infrastructure dedicated to engineering biology and the industrialization of biotechnology. Through IBISBA, we aim to provide access to researchers from academia and industry across the globe to integrated services that support end-to-end, fit-for-purpose bioprocesses. By federating research organisations across Europe, we promote standardisation and good data practice, two factors that create the basis for service reproducibility and interoperability, and thus the accelerated production of scientific knowledge and its translation into innovation.