The synthetic biology and precision fermentation space is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity these days. But it’s not every day you come across a startup that’s using genetic engineering to produce natural rubber — a substance that’s challenging to reproduce in a lab because of how long its polymer is. Paris-based baCta has a proof of concept up and running that uses engineered bacteria (E.
coli) to yield natural rubber in vitro. The startup says its method, which relies upon a renewable feedstock — currently it’s using glucose but is aiming to diversify into acetate and carbon — is carbon neutral. The startup has just bagged €3.
3 million (around $3.6 million at current exchange rates) so it can get to work on its next challenge: figuring out how to industrialize its lab-based process and move from producing milligrams of raw material so far into the far greater quantities necessary for other companies to use its rubber to make their own products. Natural rubber not grown on trees Around half the world’s rubber is synthetic (i.
e. derived from petroleum); the other half (natural rubber) is harvested from the latex-laden sap of Hevea trees. Neither route is great from a sustainability point of view.
Though natural rubber might sound more environmentally friendly, it can lead to deforestation if land is cleared to make way for Hevea plantations. At the same time, with the advent of emissions reporting regulations and the like, manufacturers in Europe and elsew.