Share:
String Bio is a Bengaluru-based Indian start-up established in the year 2013 which is working on revolutionizing how methane (from waste) can be converted to a sustainable source of food for animal and human consumption and thereby helping mitigate its greenhouse effect and atmospheric warming potential.
This Green Technology company successfully leverages methane produced from waste or natural sources as a carbon source to produce valuable chemicals, animal feed, and going on to human nutrition. String Bio’s SIMP (String Integrated Methane Platform) harnesses synthetic biology, fermentation technology, and process engineering advances to enable a methane-based value chain. The company’s target products include Lactic acid, Succinic acid for bio-polymers and single cell protein or microbial protein for animal nutrition, and food additives.
String Bio has received validation/recognition for its work through numerous awards and grants. Additionally, they have received funding from Investors such as Ankur capital, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (Kitven) Srinivasa Farms, and Seventure Partners in the year 2019.
String Bio Patent Portfolio Analysis
Overview
- 14 patent applications belonging to 7 Simple Families.
- Consistent patent filings since establishment with peak in the year 2015.
- All the patent filings are alive with the only Inactive ones being the initial PCT applications.
- Patent protection sought in three jurisdictions India, US, and EP.
- 3 granted US patents , 1 Granted Indian and 1 granted EP patent .
- Additional 2 alive PCT applications and 2 pending applications in India and EP.
Claimed Entity Analysis
- Patent claims cover recombinant bacterium, culture media, fermentation and downstream processing.
- Recombinant Methanotropic bacterial genus disclosed in the claims are Methylococcus, Methylomicrobium, Methylocella, Methylocapsa, Methylosinus, Methylacidiphilum, Methylomonas, Methylocystis, Methylovulum, Methylobacillus. Methylibium, Methylobacterium, Methylophilus, Methylomonas, Methylovorus, Methylovulum, Crenothrix, Clonothrix, Methylobacter, Methylobacillus, Mycobacterium, Methylibium, Methylophilus, Methylosinus and Acidithiobacillus.
- The claimed recombinant bacteria are producing value added products like lactic acid, succinic acid, and Indigo from methane or biogas.
- The recombinant methanotropic bacteria disclosed in the patents have heterologous nucleic acids or genes encoding enzymes inserted into their genome from different sources such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pectobacterium carotovorum.
- Additionally, some genes in these recombinant bacteria are overexpressed and others downregulated, to selectively increase the bioproduction/concentration of the desired product utilizing methane.
