In situ solid-liquid extraction enhances recovery of taxadiene from engineered S. cerevisiae cell factories

A novel in situ solid phase adsorption strategy was investigated for enhanced recovery of taxadiene, a precursor to the blockbuster anticancer drug, paclitaxel, from engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A synthetic adsorbent resin (HP-20) was employed to capture taxadiene across a range of cultivation scales. Cultivations from 12 % (w/v) resin concentration resulted in bead fragmentation which were found to be detrimental to cellular growth. After cultivation, the use of acetone for desorption captured intracellular and secreted taxadiene, achieving an integration of the bioprocess. Implementation of the proposed method at microscale (2 mL) and benchtop bioreactor scale (250 mL) resulted in 1.9-fold and 1.4-fold increments in taxadiene titer, respectively, compared to the extraction method using a dodecane overlay. Taxadiene was found to be distributed between resin beads and biomass in a ratio of 50 %. Finally, a maximum taxadiene titer of 76 {+/-} 19 mg/L was achieved in the benchtop bioreactor cultivations.