Amyris brought its farnesene production platform to scale, but returned to low-volume applications following financial trouble

May 24, 2018 | Case Study

Amyris is a synthetic biology company that utilizes high-throughput screening to evaluate genetically engineered strains of yeast that produce isoprenoid compounds. The company has developed software and hardware platforms that allow its scientists to design and build over 1,000 molecules per month. Over the past few years, the majority of Amyris' resources were diverted from developing new pathways and instead dedicated toward ramping up and optimizing the production of farnesene (C₁₅H₂₄), a platform molecule with a variety of derivatives and with both high- and low-volume applications. Amyris prioritized the high-volume derivatives in 2011 and began the construction of a 40,000 tpa capacity commercial facility named Brotas 1.