Synthetic biology startup Lygos raises $13M to make cleaner chemicals
We&#x27;re learning more and more that microbes are essentially radically optimized factories. They&#x27;ve evolved for millions of years to be really good at producing stuff. Typically, though, it&#x27;s not stuff we want. But if we edit the genetic code of the microbes we can direct that productive capacity towards making things we do want.<p>That&#x27;s exactly what Lygos is doing for industrial chemicals. And the beauty of the microbes Lygos is engineering -- specifically yeast -- is that they feed on sugar &amp; water. Feed them sugar &amp; water, and out pops specialty chemicals. This allows Lygos&#x27;s microbial factories to produce industrial chemicals with sustainable inputs and with no toxic outputs.<p>I&#x27;m incredibly excited by the potential for synthetic biology to reinvent the way we produce all sorts of things we like to eat, wear, or make things with in the decade ahead.