DBBHA-SEC: Evidencing Technical Feasibility of producing Hyaluronic acid utilising a new highly productive strain of Cyanobacteria by removing the secretion bottleneck

**DBBHA-SEC: Evidencing Technical Feasibility of producing Hyaluronic Acid utilising a new highly productive strain of Cyanobacteria by removing the secretion bottleneck.**

A UK-based SME, Deep Blue Biotech Ltd, is conducting this 4-month feasibility study with an aim to develop our cyanobacteria platform, leveraging the rapid growth and high biomass accumulation of a recently identified highly productive strain to enhance our production capabilities, and exploit it for photosynthetic bioproduction of hyaluronic acid (HA). Previously, production of hyaluronic acid in cyanobacteria has been hampered by incomplete secretion of produced HA, causing growth defects in the strain and ultimately leading to low yields.

This analysis will focus on engineering efficient secretion pathway, which will boost the production yields, leading to commercially viable production rates and greatly simplifying the downstream process.

Post project we will refine and scale our proprietary metabolic engineering approach, further boosting the strain performance, before moving into the pilot phase. By 2031, we expect HA's domestic and localised supply chain to generate internal revenues of £177 million and profits of £35 million, strengthening our commitment to sustainable development.