ABE Process—Acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation process. Acetone and butanol are produced from glucose using strains of Clostridia.
Act Ontology—A formal ontology that describes the molecular function of any entity participating in a biochemical reaction. Act Ontology provides a formal description of the species’ chemical behavior according to a controlled vocabulary to support querying, synthesis, and verification.45
APHIS—USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service.
BDO—1,4-butanediol.
Bifunctional—A molecule or compound that has properties of two different types of functional groups.
Biocatalysis—The use of natural catalysts to perform chemical transformations on organic compounds.
Bioeconomy—The portion of the economy that is derived from biological processes and manufacturing.
Bioinformatics—The science of collecting and analyzing complex biological data.
BIOFAB—International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology.
Biomanufacturing—The production of biology-based chemicals and products.
Biorefinery—A biorefinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and chemicals from biomass.125
BMBL—Biosafety in Microbiological and Medical Laboratories. A publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Safety, Health, and Environment and the National Institutes of Health.
BNICE—Biochemical Network Integrated Computational Explorer. A framework for identification and thermodynamic assessment of all possible pathways for the degradation or production of a given compound.
Biotechnology—The use of living cells, bacteria, etc., to make useful products.15
COBRA—COnstraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis. It is a leading software package for genome-scale analysis of metabolism.126
CRISPR/Cas9—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.
DNA—Deoxyribonucleic Acid.
Domesticated Microorganism—The domestication of an organism to be a suitable chassis in industrial biotechnology.
Enzyme—Typically proteins, enzymes are macromolecular biological catalysts.
EPA—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
FDA—U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Feedstock—The starting material used in the manufacturing process. This may be a form of biomass, a crude or refined petroleum hydrocarbon product, or a material that has already been chemically modified in some way.
Fermentation—A metabolic process that converts sugar into a product.
Continuous—A fermentation process in which nutrients are added to the bioreactor continuously and product is continuously removed from the bioreactor.
Fed Batch—A fermentation processes in which nutrients are added to the bioreactor during cultivation with the product remaining in the bioreactor.
FIFRA—Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The act provides federal government control of pesticide distribution, sale, and use.
Financial Instruments—Forms of research and innovation financing asset classes and financing mechanisms.
Genetic Engineering—The process of manually adding new DNA to an organism, typically with the goal of expressing one or more traits not already found in that organism.
Horizontally Stratified Development—A stratified industry for process development in which different companies specialize in different steps along the supply or value chain.
MAGE—Multiplex Automated Genomic Engineering. MAGE simultaneously targets many locations on the chromosome for modification in a single cell or across a population of cells.124
Metabolic Engineering—Optimizing genetic and regulatory processes within cells to increase the production of a desired product.
Metrology—The science of measurement.
Monomer—A molecule that may bind chemically to other molecules to form a polymer.
NIH—U.S. National Institutes of Health.
OSHA—U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
PDO—1,3-propanediol.
PHA—Polyhydroxyalkanoates. Polyesters produced by bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids.
Polymer—A large molecule, or macromolecule, composed of many repeated subunits.
PLA—Polylactic acid. A biodegradable polyester derived from biological feedstocks.
Polymerase—An enzyme that synthesizes long chains or polymers of nucleic acids.
Protein Engineering—The introduction of practical improvements into proteins.127
Rational Design—A design strategy that takes into consideration the capabilities available in science and engineering, as well as possible chemical transformations that will lead to a product of choice.
RNA—Ribonucleic Acid.
Synthetic Biology—A field that applies engineering principles to reduce genetics into DNA “parts” and understand how they can be combined to build desired functions in living cells.
Systems Biology—The study of systems of biological units.
TAG—triacyl glyceride.
Transformation—The conversion of a substrate to a product.
TSCA—Toxic Substances Control Act. Provides the federal government with authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures.
USDA—U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Vertically Integrated Development—Process research and development is performed by vertically integrated corporations that develop the entire processes from end to end.
WHO—World Health Organization.
