Reference number : GC-2017-Q3-00845, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Eltis, Lindsay (The University of British Columbia), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : British Columbia|Colombie-Britannique, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Strategic Projects - Group, program name french : Projets stratégiques - groupe, program purpose english : The Canadian forest products industry must undergo a paradigm shift to remain competitive, due to competition from abroad and the plummeting demand for traditional products. Meanwhile, there is burgeoning demand for environmentally-sustainable bioproducts. Next generation lignocellulosic biorefineries producing renewable fuels, commodity and feedstock chemicals, and biomaterials will drive the requisite shift. This shift will require that lignin, comprising 15-30% of woody biomass, be converted to higher value products. Our project will develop biocatalysts for the deconstruction and conversion of lignin into bioproducts. Such "biocatalysts" can unlock the enormous economic potential of Canada's forest biomass, usher in production of new value-added products, and substantially reduce the industry's ecological footprint. We aim to develop two types of biocatalysts: (a) enzymes that depolymerize lignin; and (b) bacteria that transform lignin depolymerization products to high-value products. These objectives will be achieved using cutting-edge methods pioneered in our laboratories. Lignin depolymerization activities will be mined using metagenomic and activity-based screens of microbial communities that naturally decompose biomass. Degradation pathways for lignin depolymerization products in bacteria will be discovered using genomic approaches. The genes encoding relevant enzymes and pathways will constitute a toolkit to develop biocatalysts and processes that valorize lignocellulosic biomass. With this toolkit, we will engineer bacteria to upgrade lignin-derived streams to commodity chemicals, such as wax esters and muconate. We will collaborate with our industrial partners to identify appropriate bioproducts, to integrate our biocatalysts in engineered systems under development, and to commercialize the resulting technologies. Our partners include FPInnovations, Fibria, Catalyst Paper, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AB Enzymes. These organizations are developing technologies to improve the biorefining of biomass and are poised to take up novel lignin-transforming biocatalysts., program purpose french : The Canadian forest products industry must undergo a paradigm shift to remain competitive, due to competition from abroad and the plummeting demand for traditional products. Meanwhile, there is burgeoning demand for environmentally-sustainable bioproducts. Next generation lignocellulosic biorefineries producing renewable fuels, commodity and feedstock chemicals, and biomaterials will drive the requisite shift. This shift will require that lignin, comprising 15-30% of woody biomass, be converted to higher value products. Our project will develop biocatalysts for the deconstruction and conversion of lignin into bioproducts. Such "biocatalysts" can unlock the enormous economic potential of Canada's forest biomass, usher in production of new value-added products, and substantially reduce the industry's ecological footprint. We aim to develop two types of biocatalysts: (a) enzymes that depolymerize lignin; and (b) bacteria that transform lignin depolymerization products to high-value products. These objectives will be achieved using cutting-edge methods pioneered in our laboratories. Lignin depolymerization activities will be mined using metagenomic and activity-based screens of microbial communities that naturally decompose biomass. Degradation pathways for lignin depolymerization products in bacteria will be discovered using genomic approaches. The genes encoding relevant enzymes and pathways will constitute a toolkit to develop biocatalysts and processes that valorize lignocellulosic biomass. With this toolkit, we will engineer bacteria to upgrade lignin-derived streams to commodity chemicals, such as wax esters and muconate. We will collaborate with our industrial partners to identify appropriate bioproducts, to integrate our biocatalysts in engineered systems under development, and to commercialize the resulting technologies. Our partners include FPInnovations, Fibria, Catalyst Paper, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and AB Enzymes. These organizations are developing technologies to improve the biorefining of biomass and are poised to take up novel lignin-transforming biocatalysts., agreement title english : Developing biocatalysts to valorize lignin, agreement title french : Developing biocatalysts to valorize lignin, agreement number : STPGP, agreement value : 598732.0, agreement start date : 2017-10-18, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2020-2021)., additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2020-2021)., owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada