DigiBio project focuses on digitalisation, bioeconomy, and sustainability, scientific domains which constitute a high priority in national, regional, and EU strategies and policies. As the second large European Centre within this area, the Estonian Centre for Bioesustainability (ECB) will place Estonia in a very competitive position in European R&I. With DTU assistance, ECB will establish a major research, technology development, and innovation platform for the generation of cutting-edge bioengineering solutions focused on sustainable bio-production through biology digitalisation. This platform will accelerate lab-to-market translation of bioengineering solutions, diversifying Estonian national industry. DigiBio’s overarching objective is to establish a state-of-the-art CoE for digitalisation of biology in Estonia, through upgrading the ECB.
The transition towards a clean economy requires novel processes for chemical, material, and liquid fuel production that use sustainable substrates, have improved life cycle, and hence a reduced carbon footprint. Cell factories provide the ultimate platform for this purpose to drive the world economy and mitigate risks emanating from climate change. An exponential increase in process productivity by rapid technological developments in the fields of additive manufacturing and synthetic biology has the potential to influence nearly every industry because of adaptability and continual cost reduction. In this project, we offer interdisciplinary research that combines the advances in additive manufacturing of living materials with synthetic biology of non-conventional yeasts to manufacture a novel flow chemistry platform for creating biorefineries that can convert sustainable, locally available substrates into value-added oleochemicals with an aim to meet sustainability goals of society.