Invista & SilicoLife to develop bio-derived raw materials

The two companies are collaborating in order to further co-develop their technology platforms. One of the initial focus areas will be bio-derived production of butadiene.

The agreement will leverage INVISTA’s capabilities in biotechnology and catalysis, and knowledge of the chemicals industry, and SilicoLife’s in silico metabolic engineering and rational synthetic biology capabilities for the development of new bio-based routes to industrial chemicals.

“INVISTA is constantly seeking innovative approaches to advance its position in biotechnology,” said Warren Primeaux, president of INVISTA Intermediates. “We anticipate this collaboration with SilicoLife will help us accelerate our timeline to develop new bio-derived processes for a range of industrial chemicals—helping us further improve our cost and sustainability position in this area.”

According to Simão Soares, CEO of SilicoLife, “The collaboration with INVISTA combines our state-of-the art engineering expertise with INVISTA’s world-class research team to accelerate the design of optimized microbial strains for the cost-effective production of industrial chemicals from renewable feedstocks.”

About SilicoLife

SilicoLife provides in silico (performed on computer or via computer simulation) metabolic engineering solutions, building computational models of microbial cells and developing proprietary state-of-the-art algorithms to find the most efficient pathways between raw-material and end-product. SilicoLife helps its clients to streamline the strain design process and to explore non-intuitive pathway modifications.

About INVISTA

With leading brands including LYCRA, COOLMAX, CORDURA, STAINMASTER and ANTRON, INVISTA is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers. The company’s advantaged technologies for nylon, spandex and polyester are used to produce clothing, carpet, car parts and countless other everyday products.

Invista