twig

Reduce risk in precision fermentation

Sustainable ingredients

Fossil fuel–derived ingredients are everywhere, from the products we use daily to the materials that power entire industries. While there is growing demand for more sustainable alternatives, replacing these ingredients entirely is often difficult. Many existing products rely on them, and reformulating from scratch can be costly and complex.

A more practical solution is to keep the same ingredients but change how they are made. Instead of relying on fossil fuels, we can produce them using biological processes, harnessing the power of nature to create the same chemicals in a more sustainable way.

One promising approach is precision fermentation. This process uses microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi to produce specific chemicals with high purity. Basically, these microbes are “fed” with renewable biomass and naturally convert it into a desired product. Once production is complete, the chemical is extracted and used just like its conventional counterpart. Although it may sound cutting-edge, precision fermentation has been used for decades, particularly in the food industry.

Beyond sustainability, biomanufacturing also offers greater supply security. Recent global disruptions have highlighted how fragile traditional supply chains can be, especially those dependent on raw materials like oil. Producing chemicals locally through biological processes reduces reliance on these volatile supply chains, helping companies maintain more consistent and resilient operations.

Removing the guesswork from precision fermentation

This sounds simple but in reality, identifying the right microorganism is far from straightforward. Each microbe must be carefully engineered so that it produces the desired chemical, a process that relies on precise genetic design. Traditionally, this involves a significant amount of trial and error to find a promising starting point, followed by further rounds of optimisation. Even then, success is not guaranteed. In recent years, several high-profile efforts have struggled to scale, showing how even strong ideas can falter in practice.

This is where twig aims to make a difference. The company has developed a platform designed to remove much of the guesswork from precision fermentation and reduce the risks involved. Their approach combines artificial intelligence with vast datasets, drawing both on internal research and insights from the scientific literature to build a detailed understanding of how these biological systems behave. This is welcome news for researchers and investors alike.

Supporting the precision fermentation journey with AI – twig:tech

Twig works with organisations to support every stage of their precision fermentation journey. Using its proprietary AI model, the company helps businesses develop high‑performing, scalable microbial strains for sustainable production.

Design

bio:drive – The first step in any development process is designing the right microorganism, especially when a target chemical is known, but no suitable strain exists. Using its AI platform, twig can generate novel microbial designs and predict how they are likely to perform.

The output includes key data to support decision-making, such as predicted yields, potential performance improvements, and likely production bottlenecks. Together, these insights enable teams to focus their efforts on the most viable options.

Test

grow:bot – Once promising designs are identified, twig moves to validation. The company has developed an automated, high-throughput platform to experimentally test the AI-generated designs. Using standardised methods, they produce and evaluate the highest-priority microbial candidates while minimising human error. This platform rapidly screens strains to identify those with the strongest potential for scale-up, significantly accelerating development timelines and improving the chances of success.

Importantly, all data generated during testing, whether positive or negative, is fed back into the AI model. This continuous learning loop improves the system over time, making future predictions more accurate and further reducing uncertainty in the development process.

This helps teams begin their development journey with greater confidence and a clearer direction.

Ready to explore

twig  have partnered with many companies, helping their development journey. They have explored some chemicals internally, with the microbes developed by them available for licencing. These solutions have applications across a diverse set of industries, including cosmetics, food, agriculture, specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and polymers.

Understanding the opportunity – Hazel

twig has developed a new AI‑driven intelligence platform designed to help organisations explore opportunities in biomanufacturing. Launched in June, the platform, called Hazel, is distinct from its core biomanufacturing offering. Instead, it acts as a starting point, helping customers quickly and affordably get up to speed and understand the potential of producing a specific chemical biologically.

The platform is built around two core components, both designed to give users a well-rounded view of the opportunity, starting with nothing more than a target chemical in mind.

Perspective landscape

This report provides a broad overview of the chemical’s market, both in general and within the context of biomanufacturing. It brings together a wide range of factors, including market size, competitive landscape, patent activity, regulatory considerations, and end-user acceptance. It also examines input costs, sustainability factors, life-cycle impact, and feedstock availability.

Together, these insights help users assess whether a particular chemical is a strong candidate for biomanufacturing.

Biofeasibility report

The second component focuses on the practical side, evaluating how feasible it is to produce the chemical using biological processes. It explores key considerations such as upstream and downstream processing, scale-up risks, and feedstock requirements, all of which can present challenges in real-world production.

The report also looks at techno-economic viability and pathway novelty, helping users understand not only whether the chemical can be produced, but whether it can be done profitably. Additional insights into regulatory hurdles and sustainability further inform the potential for adoption.

Taken together, these two perspectives provide a comprehensive overview, enabling organisations to make informed decisions about whether to pursue biomanufacturing for a given chemical.

What’s next?

twig is looking for potential partners who wish to develop novel microbes for their chemical needs, or companies active in strain engineering who want to optimise their processes. Their Hazel platform launched earlier this year and they are hoping to identify customers who wish to use it as part of their biomanufacturing journey.  Recently, they were awarded a compute allocation on Isambard, the UK’s fastest supercomputer, to further train their AI models and improve predictions for their partners.

If you are interested in speaking with twig, please reach out to Strategic Allies and we would be happy to make an introduction.