Future Fields Debuts Instar 1.0: A Biofactory With 30 Times the Output of Conventional Protein Technology

Future Fields, the sustainable fly biotechnology company, today announced the launch of a new service line as well as the factory that will support the company’s enterprise growth. Located in downtown Edmonton, the 6,000 square foot factory, dubbed Instar 1.0, will employ over 20 technicians, chemists, and biomolecular specialists while offering a novel biotech service: custom protein production in exotic cell lines such as neurons, brain cells, and more, to enable next generation disease research.

The synthetic biology revolution relies on the production and availability of proteins produced using engineered DNA sequences, typically in host organisms different from the protein's original source. To date, the supply of such recombinant proteins has been dwarfed by the demand, and the status quo approach has been to use options from a severely limited set of cell types, such as Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) cells. This has restricted a desperate need for protein innovation in advanced disease research and treatment, because mechanisms like CHO cells are unable to manufacture specialized proteins with the economics necessary.

For the last five years, Future Fields has been scaling, iterating, and selling products based on a paradigm shift, using fruit flies instead of steel bioreactors with its patented EntoEngine™. The company began by selling proteins it made itself, scaling slowly, testing its technology with a varied customer base and confirming through third-party experts its alignment with US and EU regulatory standards for therapeutic protein production. Future Fields is now announcing the considerable expansion of both its technology and its manufacturing capacity. The news comes as American legislation like the proposed BIOSECURE Act drives demand for domestic biomanufacturing supply chains. 

“There’s growing demand for our product and services and we’re ready to scale. We have a Fortune Global 500 organization that’s been increasing consumption of our products 200 percent quarter over quarter,” said Matt Anderson-Baron, CEO and cofounder of Future Fields. “Global biomanufacturing capacity is limited - both in raw capacity and technical capacity - and it is only getting worse. The launch of our new factory helps address both of these challenges and we’re ecstatic to be a positive force for global protein production.” 

A significant portion of the factory’s capacity will be allocated to the custom protein line, where Future Fields will be commissioned to manufacture bespoke proteins designed for cutting edge research. In a first, Future Fields has created a way to express a protein within any specific cell type of a fly - instead of the whole genetically engineered fly - giving it the ability to target over 200 exotic cell types needed to help manufacture and test the increasingly novel and potentially breakthrough proteins that AI systems are unearthing each year. 

Because fruit flies propagate fast and are not constrained by the same needs of electricity and water, the factory yields much more protein in a smaller period of time and with considerably less environmental impact than incumbent methods. Third party environmental assessments have found that the factory will emit 86 percent less carbon and use 74 percent less water than conventional methods. More validated industry data suggests that it has achieved a remarkable CHO-equivalent production benchmark of up to 305 grams per liter.

“Biotechnology is bubbling with innovation, but to date, little funding has gone to biomanufacturing production infrastructure at scale. Traditional bioreactors are expensive, wasteful, and capacity-limited,” said Jim Adler, Founder and General Partner of Toyota Ventures. “It is time for disruptive innovation. We applaud Future Fields’ cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable biomanufacturing platform to fuel biotechnology’s next life-saving inventions.”

The news follows a series of notable announcements for the company. These include the expansion of its advisory board to include multiple prominent area domain experts: Haresh Mirchanadi, PhD, a leader with 30 years of strategic business development including 19 years at Johnson & Johnson; Anna Seymour-Slight, an experienced Managing Director and VP in the Life Sciences; Chuck Hart, an industry leader with 32 years of biologics manufacturing experience with experience at Amgen, Shire, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, and Wyeth; and Sreesh Srinivasa, PhD, an industry veteran with 25 years of global experience in drug discovery and development.

Companies interested in working with Future Fields should submit their interest here.

ABOUT FUTURE FIELDS

Future Fields is a fly biotechnology company based in Edmonton, Canada. Founded in 2018, it is on a mission to change how we do science for humanity and the planet. Its biomanufacturing platform, the EntoEngine™, is the first synthetic biology system in the world to use fruit flies for recombinant protein production. 

Future Fields is backed by marquee investors including Toyota Ventures, Y-Combinator, Amplify Capital, Builders VC, and Bee Partners. It is staffed by a world-class team of experts that span 11 PhDs with over 250 scientific publications as well as advisors that include Nobel Laureates and senior experts in drug discovery, protein biomanufacturing and vaccine development.

Building a more sustainable future in science, Future Fields is a Green Certified Lab, a 1% for the Planet member, and a proud supporter of the United Nations Global Compact. By partnering with a producer that cares for people and the planet, clients receive quality proteins while advancing their leadership in sustainable biotechnology. Learn more at https://futurefields.io 

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