White biotechnology is based on microbial fermentation processes. Fermentation processes have already been known for a real while, ever since they were used for food and drink preservation, e.g., by carboxylic acid or alcoholic fermentation. Industrial biotechnology uses micro?organisms (bacteria, archaea, yeasts, fungi, micro?algae) as production organisms. The technology is intended to optimize the processes in terms of variety and quality of products formed, requirements for raw materials and efficiency of the applied processes. This will be accomplished by improving the assembly proc

White biotechnology is based on microbial fermentation processes. Fermentation processes have already been known for a real while, ever since they were used for food and drink preservation, e.g., by carboxylic acid or alcoholic fermentation. Industrial biotechnology uses micro?organisms (bacteria, archaea, yeasts, fungi, micro?algae) as production organisms. The technology is intended to optimize the processes in terms of variety and quality of products formed, requirements for raw materials and efficiency of the applied processes. This will be accomplished by improving the assembly process, e.g. by improving fermenter design, and by optimizing the suitability of the assembly organisms for the assembly process. Over the past decades, our understanding of the functioning of the biological cell has increased dramatically. This has led to a huge potential for using the cellular processes for the aim of white biotechnology, by turning the biological cell into an ever more efficient production engine for white biotechnology. The expectations for the accomplishments of white biotechnology shortly are high.

The methodology of White Biotechnology

To research and analyze future developments in the white biotechnology sector the authors used the subsequent tools to collect information.

• Analysis of articles in 2014 and 2015 volumes of Current Opinion in Biotechnology concerning topics broadly associated with the event of strains for white biotechnological processes. This approach was chosen because earlier search strategies in the entire literature, supported keywords, e.g. 'innovative', 'white biotechnology', did not yield consistent or meaningful results.
• Screening the awards lists of British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with search criteria ‘current’ and ‘biotechnology’.

• Preparing a preliminary overview of (innovative) technologies in white biotechnology. Selections made for this list were supported expert judgment by the authors.
• Interviews with representatives of organizations (scientific and commercial) using the selected techniques.
• Selection of the foremost relevant techniques supported information received and expert judgment.

Desk research

To urge a summary of the currently relevant developments in white biotechnology, the 2014 and 2015 volumes of Current Opinion in Biotechnology, one among the more opinionating journals in the field, were analyzed. Approximately 100 papers were taken into consideration. A summary of research & development issues that are currently being explored was obtained by screening the awards lists of British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with the search criteria ‘current’ and ‘biotechnology’. A complete of 565 grant descriptions were found. Over 57 of those projects described or used techniques that were deemed relevant for this inventory. Supported both these inputs, a preliminary list of techniques was identified and categorized into a variety of themes associated with ‘production strain development’. The division into themes was done supported expert opinion by the project team, in consultation with the advisory committee.

Applications of white biotechnology

Current applications of CRISPR/Cas9 for strain improvement are mainly the assembly of mutations, either random indels or specific edits, at the precise location to which the Cas9 nuclease is directed. Application areas are equivalent because of the application areas of chemically or radiation-induced mutations, or the appliance areas of genetic modification by other GM techniques. The most difference, and advantage, compared to other techniques is that the precision of the CRISPR/Cas9 method and therefore the relatively simple use. The major advantage of the tactic is that quite one edit is often made in one go, using combinations of differently targeted Cas nucleases.

Barriers and drivers

CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing may be a technique that permits, in theory, very precise modifications of target genes. Most vital, multiple changes are often induced in the one and therefore the same round of CRISPR/Cas9 activity. The technique is rapidly becoming available and appears to supersede the more traditional techniques for GM, and other editing techniques like ODM (Oligonucleotide Directed Mutagenesis), and therefore the use of zinc finger nucleases or TALEN (Transcription Activator?Like Effector Nuclease). One driver could also be the (expected) regulatory status as non?GM, of some sorts of products produced by the technique, e.g., the small size indels.

White biotechnology is evolving rapidly, due to the chances offered by new techniques and approaches. These are often used for enhancing the efficiency of metabolic processes that are already in use or to plan novel metabolic processes for the assembly of a large sort of biological compounds. there's a transparent distinction between the expectations of scientists who are developing new techniques and using them for specific biotechnological purposes, and corporations active in white biotechnology that are inclined to only use new techniques if a business case is often construed that results in a transparent advantage. In industrial biotechnology techniques are chosen supported the wants for the method and its cost effectiveness, not on the idea of the mere availability of the technique.

The big variety of projects that are interesting to the scientific community are often derived

from the list of projects that are being sponsored by the BBSRC. It should be remembered that these projects are functioning within the realm of data development, i.e., at an early stage on the roadmap towards the commercialization of biotechnological innovations. Companies in white biotechnology are far more focused on their specific production processes, with which they need ample experience, also in terms of the investments necessary to optimize process when technological innovations are brought in. They're going to balance these investments necessary for the adoption of a replacement technique against the probabilities of success and the expected return on investment. A number of the interviewees were rather cautious in their answers with regards to the utilization of the latest techniques, while others expect the implementation of techniques to occur faster. Hence, it's difficult to formulate clear predictions about the actual use of the techniques within the subsequent five years, or in 5?9 years.