Berlin is knorke: Biotechnology combined with Artificial Intelligence
Berlin, 27.1.2025 -
If you look deep enough into life using today’s methods, you very quickly end up in areas that the eye can no longer see and the imagination can only grasp with difficulty: the small-scale structure, i.e. the molecular composition, of proteins, fats or sugars. In order to analyse these and make them usable for applications, for example in medicine, biotechnology is indispensable. By combining them with Artificial Intelligence, these analyses become faster and solutions can be sought that otherwise could not be found or could only be found with great effort.
What has been summarised here in a few lines, however, is a complex process that only a few companies and researchers have mastered. One of these companies is Cambrium GmbH: a Berlin-based company that uses its expertise in biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence to develop sustainable, protein-based, alternatives for products that are currently either of animal or petroleum origin.
Their first product is NovaCollTM: a collagen that is already used in cosmetic products. This is not a product of animal origin, rather it is a collagen produced by biotechnological processes, which occurs identically in the human body.
So how does Cambrium manage to produce optimised human (i.e. “human-identical”) proteins without humans? For this purpose, the proteins are analysed at molecular level. We then look at the order in which the individual building blocks, the amino acids, occur and whether there is perhaps an optimised design. Bioinformatic methods are mainly used here. Once the correct amino acid sequence has been found, yeast cells are used: They produce the desired protein as part of a precision fermentation process. After purification, the product can be used.
The potential of this technology has already been fully recognised and rewarded accordingly: In 2024 alone, Cambrium won four prizes, including the Berlin Brandenburg Innovation Award 2024 and the Deep Tech Award 2024. Further awards are sure to follow and we can only hope that the name will become the programme: Analogue to the diversity of species that developed in the Cambrian geological era, possible application scenarios are set to expand. This means that more sustainable protein alternatives will be available in the near future.
