MicroBioGen opens state-of-the-art laboratory facilities in Sydney, further establishing NSW as a world-leading industrial biotechnology hub
Key Points:
- The dedicated R&D laboratories will produce micro-organisms that are essential to industries worth over US$2 trillion per year, including biofuels, alternative proteins, space exploration, sustainable human foods and animal feed.
- As a critical partner and key contributor of sustainable solutions for governments, the new labs will enable MicroBioGen to continue to advance innovative yeast products to address global concerns around energy and food production.
- The $5 million facility was opened by the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister. The Member for Bennelong Mr Jerome Laxale MP was also in attendance.
- The 1,250 square metre Macquarie Park facility will attract top scientific talent to NSW and enable MicroBioGen to double its skilled scientific workforce to around 40 scientists.
- The company spun out of Macquarie University, is a home-grown success story for the profitable commercialisation of the research coming out of Australia’s leading institutions.
Macquarie Park, NSW - Australian industrial biotechnology leader MicroBioGen (“the Company”) officially opened its state-of-the-art laboratories in Macquarie Park in Northern Sydney this weekend. The labs will produce world-leading micro-organisms that are essential to industries worth over US$2 trillion per year, including biofuels, alternative proteins, space exploration, sustainable human foods and animal feed.
The facility was opened by the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister. The Member for Bennelong Mr Jerome Laxale MP was also in attendance, along with around 80 of MicroBioGen’s partners, employees and supporters.
A global innovator of specialised and bespoke strains of the common yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae - also known as baker’s yeast, MicroBioGen’s new labs represent a significant investment by the Company to establish a world-leading industrial biotechnology hub in Australia.
MicroBioGen CEO Geoff Bell said: “The new laboratories will allow us to expand our research capabilities, putting MicroBioGen and Australia at the forefront of global biotech and sustainable innovation.
“By building a state-of-the-art facility we will attract and retain the brightest scientific minds to NSW, scientists who can help MicroBioGen advance its micro-organisms, especially in the areas of sustainability, biofuels, animal feed and alternative protein development.
“Exports currently make up 100 per cent of our revenues so it is essential that our facilities and our scientists are also the best in the world.”
Spun out of Sydney’s Macquarie University in 2001, MicroBioGen’s first commercial ethanol products entered the North American market in 2017 through a partnership with Danish industrial biotech giant Novozymes. In just four years, MicroBioGen-developed yeast were the leading biocatalysts in the US biofuel market.
Twice the size of the Company’s previous research space, the 1,250 square metre facility will enable MicroBioGen to double its skilled scientific workforce to around 40 scientists including geneticists, and biofuel and baking specialists.
The dedicated R&D facility includes fermentation labs, a genetics lab and large preparation rooms, all equipped with the latest technology including robots, high performance liquid chromatography and minus 80C˚ freezers.
A critical partner for a sustainable future
MicroBioGen is a critical partner and key contributor of sustainable solutions for a range of industries around the world, as they seek to reduce GHG emissions and improve the efficiency of energy and food production. The new labs ensure MicroBioGen can continue to develop and advance innovative yeast products to address these pressing global concerns.
The company has been awarded significant Federal funding from AusIndustry and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
In 2021, the Company successfully completed an $8 million project half-funded by ARENA, in partnership with the world’s largest industrial biotechnology company, Novozymes, to breed a strain of yeast that will produce a more efficient and economical second-generation (2G) biofuel from non-food sources with the aim of transforming the global ethanol industry and improving food security by enabling food and fuel production from abundant, low-value waste plant material.
Additional Quotes
MicroBioGen Head of Research Dr Philip Bell said: “While we will continue to provide and improve superior yeast strains for the biofuels industry, our technology is highly adaptable and extends far beyond ethanol production. We have developed yeast strains that are ideal for human applications such as baking and baking ingredients. Our advanced technology, genetics expertise and collaborative spirit can also be brought into other industry partnerships to produce cutting-edge enzymes, biochemicals, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, animal feed, and even wine and beer.”
The Member for Bennelong Mr Jerome Laxale MP said: “It’s great to be here once again at MicroBioGen for the opening of their state-of-the-art laboratory facilities here in the heart of Macquarie Park. They truly are at the forefront of innovation, and their success is part of Australia’s success given that MicroBioGen earns all its revenue through exports. We know that companies such as MicroBioGen are so vital to employment growth locally in Bennelong and through export markets, they are keeping our nation prosperous not just now but also into the future. I’d like to congratulate Geoff Bell, CEO, Dr Paul Attfield, Co-Founder and Principal Scientist, Head of Research Dr Philip Bell and all the team here at MicroBioGen on the opening of these wonderful new facilities and I wish them all the very best for the future”.
Dr Paul Attfield, Co-founder, Principal Scientist and Director said: “We spun out of Macquarie University in 2001 and here we are in these new facilities just down the street from our original lab. Common yeast underpins about $2 trillion of industry value and that is what MicroBioGen is tapping into. For millennia it has been used to make beer and bread and more recently, to make insulin and vaccines. These and other diverse and valuable applications are coming directly out of these laboratories.”
Ends
Media Contacts:
Brooke Swartz, brooke.swartz@fticonsulting.com or +61 426 018 076
Lucy Wigney, lucy.wigney@fticonsulting.com or +61 438 960 201
About MicroBioGen
MicroBioGen was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2001 by Dr Philip Bell and Dr Paul Attfield to research and develop innovative and improved biofuels. In 2006 the Company completed a successful A$6.8 million raise after developing a non-GM strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast that grows on xylose.
MicroBioGen’s first commercial ethanol products entered the North American market in 2017 through a partnership with Danish industrial biotechnology giant Novozymes, the leading supplier of yeast to the US biofuel market in just four years.
In 2021, the Company successfully completed an $8 million project also in partnership with Novozymes and partially funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to breed a strain of yeast that produced a more efficient and economical form of biofuel from non-food sources with the aim of transforming the global ethanol industry.
100 per cent of MicroBioGen’s revenue is derived from exports and the Company has been awarded a number of Australian business awards including the 2019 Australian Export Award – Minerals, Energy & Related Services; 2020 CCBJ Business Achievement Award – COVID Resilience & Business Growth; 2021 Premier’s NSW Export Award – Sustainability; 2021 Australian Technologies Competition – Energy Award. MicroBioGen was named a finalist in the 2022 Premier’s NSW Export Awards.
MicroBioGen’s executive and research team are headquartered in Macquarie Park in Northern Sydney, NSW.
Available for interview:
Geoff Bell, CEO – Leading MicroBioGen since 2006 Geoff has been applying his team management, geological science and financial skills to thread the path from start-up concept to commercial reality. The strong research and management team around him have been invaluable in the journey
Dr Philip Bell, Co-founder, Head of Research - Philip leads the R&D effort in the labs and has been one of the principal scientists since MicroBioGen’s founding in 2001. He continues to drive innovation in the company through the highly trained research team.
Dr Paul Attfield – Co-founder, Principal Scientist and Director - One of MicroBioGen’s original principal scientists, Paul is focused on commercialisation activities at MicroBioGen. He has world-leading expertise in fermentation and biochemistry.
Photo Caption: MicroBioGen’s Macquarie Park lab facility was opened by the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister, Member for Bennelong Mr Jerome Laxale with CEO Geoff Bell and Dr Paul Attfield, Co-founder and Principal Scientist, Sydney NSW