The Fruit Fly Biomanufacturing Revolution: Our Investment in Future Fields
Biotechnology is bursting with innovation. Scientists are using artificial intelligence, automation, and fast/affordable DNA sequencing to engineer countless new products. These transformative inventions include new vaccines, biofuels, sustainable materials and textiles, and cell-cultured foods, to name just a few. McKinsey estimates that the current pipeline of biological applications could have a direct economic impact of between $2 trillion and up to $4 trillion a year for the next ten to twenty years. Big numbers, for sure, but reaching this scale faces the same daunting challenge — manufacturing at scale.
Traditionally, recombinant proteins required for bioproducts are made in bioreactors. Sadly, there’s already a shortage of bioreactors around the world. In the United States, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology noted that insufficient biomanufacturing capacity has been the biggest bottleneck in the bioeconomy. It’s not a simple process to make more bioreactors because they require significant upfront capital, and operating them typically results in excess bio-waste.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our investment in Future Fields. The Edmonton, Canada-based company has developed the EntoEngine, a biomanufacturing platform that uses fruit flies to sustainably produce essential recombinant proteins at scale for numerous applications.
“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. 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.” — Jim Adler, Founder and General Partner, Toyota Ventures
Future Fields was founded in 2018 by CEO Matt Anderson-Baron and COO Jalene Anderson-Baron. Matt has a doctorate in cellular and molecular biology, and he came up with the idea for Future Fields after recognizing that bioscience products, in need of necessary building block materials, were facing a significant biomanufacturing challenge. Future Fields’ solution was the EntoEngine. The team is now aiming to build it into the most sustainable biomanufacturing platform on the planet.
The EntoEngine starts with eggs of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which are injected with a plasmid created by Future Fields that includes the gene that produces the desired recombinant protein. The flies grow up quickly and reproduce within a handful of days, passing the gene on to the next generation. The desired proteins are harvested, while the remaining insect proteins and fats can be used for valuable purposes like fertilizer or even biofuels.
In addition to producing recombinant proteins for cellular agriculture, Future Fields is expanding its offerings to serve stem cell research, vaccines, therapeutics, and more. Its growth could not be more timely, as the world searches for increased biomanufacturing capacity. In September 2022, the U.S. government announced that it would invest $1 billion in biomanufacturing domestic infrastructure.
At Toyota Ventures, we believe that technology amplifies the human experience, and Future Fields is an example of how solving a manufacturing bottleneck can open the gateway for countless solutions that can positively impact the way people live. We understand that the manufacturing process, often overlooked and undervalued, is critical to the success of the bioscience field. With traditional bioreactors not keeping pace with the growth of biotechnology products, Future Fields’ technology is maturing at the right time.
We’re proud to support the Future Fields team as they expand and build their first production facility in Edmonton, Canada. Toyota Ventures founder and general partner Jim Adler and Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund senior associate Erin Keller drove Toyota Ventures’ participation in Future Fields’ $11.2 million funding round, which includes participation from Builders VC, AgFunder, Amplify Capital, BoxOne Ventures, Green Circle Foodtech, Siddhi Capital, and Climate Collective, along with previous investors such as Bee Partners.
Visit the Future Fields website or the Toyota Ventures portfolio page to learn more.
