Skills domains
The expertise of TWB covers a broad scope of industrial biotechnology: synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering, fermentation, separation and purification processes and state-of-the-art analytical techniques. Microorganisms (bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi) and enzymes are the main biological tools. Other tools are conceivable and projects implementing protozoa or micro-algae have already been conducted.
The main objective is to use and convert renewable carbon sources (biomass, by-products) into valuable products.
Application domains are chemistry in a broad sense (chemical products, aromas, colors, prebiotics, pharmaceutical compounds,…), materials (bioplastics, biopolymers,…), food industry and energy (biofuels).
TWB skills include:
At the national level
- TWB own resources, with its technical platforms
- Partnerships established with renowned academic laboratories: TWB is tightly articulated with the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI) at INSA Toulouse. In order to expand TWB range of skills, other partnerships are also developed: Genopole Université d’Evry, ESPCI Paris Tech, MICALIS Jouy-en-Josas, BBF Marseille…
- Partnership with the Technology Resource Center CRITT Bio-Industries Midi-Pyrénées.
Depending on the needs, TWB also collaborates with complementary life science platforms such as the Genotoul Toulouse network.
At the international level
- collaborations with the partners of technological infrastructures from IBISBA (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Acceleration) programme.
TBI
Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI) at the University of Toulouse, under the triple administrative stewardship of INSA/INRAE/CNRS, is internationally renowned for its level of expertise in the fields of biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, microbiological engineering and environmental processes.
CRT/CRITT Bio-industries
A technology transfer oriented platform, CRITT Bio-Industries is specialized in pre-industrial scale bioprocesses. CRITT Bio-Industries owns a dedicated technology platform including biomass pre-treatment, fermentation, bio-separation and purification units.
IBISBA
IBISBA-EU (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Acceleration), carried by INRAE, brings together 14 facilities in 9 European countries in order to support and accelerate industrial biotechnology projects. In 2019, the European Commission added IBISBA to its European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) road map and earmarked €4m in funding over four years for the PREP-IBISBA project. The goal is to set up this research infrastructure in the form of an autonomous legal entity.