Professor Chen Guoqiang from Tsinghua University: Bacterial strains are like chips, they are of utmost importance! Biological manufacturing will replace chemical manufacturing
Recently, Chen Guoqiang, Director of the Center for Synthesis and Systems Biology at Tsinghua University, gave an interview to the program team of "Hongyi" and expressed his latest views on biomanufacturing and synthetic biology.
Biological manufacturing will replace chemical manufacturing in the future
Professor Chen Guoqiang pointed out that biomanufacturing will occupy an increasingly important position in the future manufacturing industry. The production of materials, fuels, food, nutritional supplements (including proteins), and drugs in the future will rely more on biomanufacturing technology.
This trend indicates that biomanufacturing is expected to gradually replace traditional chemical manufacturing and become the mainstream direction of manufacturing development.
The driving force behind this transformation lies in the many advantages of biomanufacturing, such as higher production efficiency, lower environmental impact, and more precise product customization capabilities.
The current situation and shortcomings of China's biomanufacturing industry
Leading in industrial scale
China's biomanufacturing industry has a huge scale and occupies a significant position in the global fermentation industry. For example, China's fermentation industry production accounts for 70% of the world's total. This data fully demonstrates China's production capacity and industrial foundation in the field of biomanufacturing.
Key Shortcomings Faced
Strain issue: China's biomanufacturing industry is highly dependent on foreign technology in terms of strains. The vast majority of strains widely used at present are traditional chassis pioneered by foreign countries, and related intellectual property rights are almost monopolized by large foreign companies and university research institutes.
This not only limits the technological autonomy of China's bio manufacturing enterprises, but may also face technological bottlenecks and intellectual property disputes in the long-term development.
Equipment dependence on imports: In the field of biomanufacturing equipment, China also faces challenges. Equipment such as high-throughput continuous centrifuges, which are crucial for the biological manufacturing process, still requires a large amount of imports.
Its high price and one-year supply period seriously restrict the development speed and cost control of China's biomanufacturing industry.
In addition, the various electrodes used in the fermentation production process mostly rely on foreign supply, further highlighting China's weak links in the field of biomanufacturing equipment.
The core position of bacterial strains
Professor Chen Guoqiang emphasized that core bacterial strains are key elements in biological manufacturing, and their importance is comparable to that of mobile phone chips. The performance of bacterial strains directly affects the efficiency, stability, and product quality of biological manufacturing processes.
Professor Chen Guoqiang used his own team's research experience as an example to illustrate the process of independent innovation of original bacterial strains.
In the first 10 years of working at Tsinghua University, the team encountered many problems when using traditional foreign strains, such as instability and bacterial contamination during the scaling up process, which made it difficult to successfully scale up production.
However, a chance encounter brought about a turning point. Teachers and students from Xinjiang introduced the extreme environment of Lake Aiding, which has characteristics such as high and low temperatures (minus 20 degrees at night and above 80 degrees during the day), high salt concentration (200 grams per liter), and alkaline pH.
The team isolated halophilic bacteria from samples collected in the region, and found that this extreme microorganism has extremely high activity and can grow rapidly under various extreme environmental conditions, possessing the "solidity" required for industrial production.
Based on this, the team developed halophilic bacteria into stable chassis cells, constructed multiple metabolic pathways, successfully manufactured multiple products, and established an efficient and diversified biomanufacturing platform.
This example not only demonstrates the potential of China's innovation in biomanufacturing strains, but also provides a feasible path to solve the problem of strain dependence.
Looking ahead to the future, Professor Chen Guoqiang calls for increased resource investment, including manpower and material resources, to deeply explore the potential of extreme microorganisms as production chassis.
Through continuous research and development, China is expected to gain greater say in the field of original microbial chassis cells, filling the gap of the current lack of original bacterial strains.
This will lay a solid foundation for the vigorous development of China's biomanufacturing industry at home and abroad, promote China's transformation from a biomanufacturing power to a biomanufacturing powerhouse, occupy a leading position in the global biomanufacturing field, and also contribute Chinese wisdom and strength to the progress of global biomanufacturing technology.
