Synthetic biology solutions in industrial biotechnology: the development of monomers and polymers via biological routes.
Penelope Mimetics provides a collaborative infrastructure for research & development that uses synthetic biology to create new polymers and their functionalizations based on a development partner’s design specifications and requirements. Penelope Mimetics provides a multidisciplinary team and R&D pilot facilities. Together, we develop and test scalable technical pathways for sustainably-sourced polymers and/or functional additive needs to improve the environmental sustainability of supply chains.
This effort is assisted by new tools. Machine learning algorithms are used to identify new molecules. High-throughput screening (HTS) is used to test new pathways. Pathways are optimized for efficiencies at pilot scale(s). With these tools, we predict and demonstrate material performance.
This enables companies to stay ahead of the curve because synthetic biology and the push for sustainable practices are altering the conventional petrochemical industry. However, the petrochemical industry’s technologies are fully developed and it is difficult to compete with their pricing. New materials can be produced with biological closed loop systems. Companies are making long-term investments in sustainability and their new materials’ efficiencies need to be optimized– Penelope Mimetics is an R&D partner in this process.
We offer co-development opportunities for bio-derived polyesters, polyamides, and nylons, functional polysaccharide-based additives such as non-halogenated, fire-retardants for polyolefins/ thermoplastics, durable water repellant (DWR) textile fibers that do not contain perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds as well as new polymers, novel materials and properties that can be explored with our development partners.
Penelope Mimetics’ research connects the company with universities and research organizations, working with proprietary and licensed technologies. We will secure additional funding via the National Science Foundation? within the SBIR/STTR program.