New EU Project BIOS pushes Industry towards a Biological Transformation

In short

Promising innovations in biotechnology often end in the "valley of death" despite advanced methods, as cell line development is confronted with an overly complex solution space of possible modifications. The BIOS project, aims to biointelligently optimize the conventional "Design-Build-Test-Learn" (DBTL) cycle and increase the speed and success rates in bioengineering.

In detail

As part of the recent call on ‚Digital and emerging technologies‘ the European project celebrated its kick-off meeting in the representation of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in Brussels, on October 5th/6th (see picture). BIOS started officially on October 1st and will last for 4 years. The nine partners from academia and industry, that originate from six European countries, support and drive the novel scientific movement of ‘biointelligence’ which reflects the conversion of biotechnology, information technology including AI and automation technology. This biointelligence mindset makes up the core of BIOS and accelerates strain and bioprocess engineering for producing novel fine chemicals and commodities in a sustainable manner. BIOS makes intensive use of hybrid learning to fully exploit the information contained in the vast amount of experimental data which are generated in an automated fashion through biorobotics. The project brings together experts from molecular and synthetic biology, systems metabolic engineering, microbiology, biochemical and bioprocess engineering, chemistry, and life cycle assessment. 

The dedicated team has one collective goal: to replace current fossil routes with sustainable microbial processes through the help of the biointelligent mindset. Soon, progress of BIOS will be shared publicly through different channels.