The centre will help DSM to boost biotechnology research and development capabilities for applications in food and nutrition, feed, fuel, pharma and bio-based materials, says the company.
The facility – located in Delft, near an existing fermentation pilot plant and production sites for antibiotic intermediates, yeast extracts and flavours – will bring together a wide range of biotech specialisations into one cluster innovation that houses more than 400 R&D staff, it added.
Feike Sijbesma, CEO and chairman of the DSM Managing Board, commented that the biotechnology centre will help to create solutions for societal challenges: “such as the need to provide all people globally with nutritious food, as well as enabling the transformation from a fossil-based to a bio-renewable-based society.”
Innovations currently under development in the new unit include the production of fermented steviol glycosides — the sweet-tasting molecules in the stevia plant – and a new technology that turns an inedible by-product of rapeseed agriculture into valuable plant protein for a range of uses in food.