likely pose to billions of people, we sincerely
hope that duckweed-based water treatment systems and many other water and nutrient reclamation technologies will be applied at larger
scale to “close the loop” and avoid scarcity.
One of the earliest companies to work with
duckweed, Biolex Therapeutics, saw the rapidly
growing high protein biomass of Lemna as a
great expression platform for transgenic proteins.
They produced several complex antibodies,
including one to target Leukemia, and trademarked the term Plantibodies
TM
, yet sadly went
out of business. Since their closure, there have
been improvements in the transgenic expression
within several duckweed species. There have
even been academic papers reporting over 20
transgenic therapeutic proteins in duckweed
reaching as high as 7% of total soluble protein
(Balaji et al. 2016). Given the lower cost of
production and lower risk of transmissible
pathogens compared to mammalian cell lines,
duckweed may once again provide genetically
engineered proteins for medical or other
applications.
Catalyst Agri-Innovations Society (CAIS)
works with a number of diverse companies in
several locations including an on-farm anaerobic
digester with nutrient extraction and at a
land-based fish farm. All of their work is on
efficiency and resource recovery at the
food/energy/water nexus in the overall agriculture domain. They currently work with several
wastewater treatments like the Trident Processes
system for separating manure solids, anaerobic
digestion to extract energy, and duckweed or
algae to remove solutes. Wastewater from multiple species is anaerobically digested to generate
methane and energy, and the digestate moves on
to enclosed stacked shelf growth chambers filled
with duckweed. After doubling in under 48 h and
cleaning the water, duckweed is fermented to
separate protein from high-value simple sugars.
Christopher Bush, Co-founder of CAIS, has
worked with the XPRIZE Foundation, designing
competitions including “Feeding the Next Billion.” The team also works with the HeroX
platform where a sponsor can publicly host a
problem and cash prize for the solution, greatly
increasing the number of scientists who can see
and solve the problem and learn from the winning solution. This type of modern interdisciplinary research center, consulting firm, or
incubator that relies on datasets from large sensor
arrays and crowd sourcing looks to be increasing
in popularity, and we look forward to the variety
of applications that will be developed where
duckweed will play a role as one of several
options to reclaim resources or feed people and
livestock more effectively.
Perhaps given their ability to clean wastewater
while providing food and fresh air, duckweeds
can be seen as not only a crop species, but a life
support system. The current water recovery system on the International Space Station relies on
complex chemical treatments and reagents while
generating wastes, which has NASA interested in
developing closed-loop life support systems for
long-term missions. Many plants develop poorly
in microgravity and produce inedible biomass, so
non-gravitropic aquatic plants and specifically
duckweeds have been studied for space flight in
closed-loop systems, microgravity simulations,
and space flights since 1966 (Landolt and Kandeler 1987; Gale et al. 1989; Bluem and Paris
2003). Lemna aequinoctialis was even found to
have a 32% increase in growth rate in simulated
microgravity (Yuan and Xu 2017). Therefore,
Space Lab Technologies, LLC is currently collaborating with the University of Colorado at
Boulder on a Phase 2 grant from NASA to
develop the lG-LilyPond
TM growth chamber as
part of a life support system (Escobar and
Escobar 2017). Part of their project is studying
how bursts of high intensity light can stimulate
production of carotenoids, vitamin E, and other
nutritious secondary metabolites (DemmigAdams and Adams 2002), and how these bursts
within the light regimen can be optimized for
energy use, plant yield, and nutritional content.
Thanks to their high growth rate, ability to grow
in shallow trays, preference for ammonia, and
entirely edible nutritious biomass duckweed are
currently the prime candidates for the system.
Presently, it is designed to provide fresh food and
oxygen, with the eventual goal of converting
urine to clean water. Based on the previous
1 Importance of Duckweeds in Basic Research and Their Industrial …
13
hope that duckweed-based water treatment systems and many other water and nutrient reclamation technologies will be applied at larger
scale to “close the loop” and avoid scarcity.
One of the earliest companies to work with
duckweed, Biolex Therapeutics, saw the rapidly
growing high protein biomass of Lemna as a
great expression platform for transgenic proteins.
They produced several complex antibodies,
including one to target Leukemia, and trademarked the term Plantibodies
TM
, yet sadly went
out of business. Since their closure, there have
been improvements in the transgenic expression
within several duckweed species. There have
even been academic papers reporting over 20
transgenic therapeutic proteins in duckweed
reaching as high as 7% of total soluble protein
(Balaji et al. 2016). Given the lower cost of
production and lower risk of transmissible
pathogens compared to mammalian cell lines,
duckweed may once again provide genetically
engineered proteins for medical or other
applications.
Catalyst Agri-Innovations Society (CAIS)
works with a number of diverse companies in
several locations including an on-farm anaerobic
digester with nutrient extraction and at a
land-based fish farm. All of their work is on
efficiency and resource recovery at the
food/energy/water nexus in the overall agriculture domain. They currently work with several
wastewater treatments like the Trident Processes
system for separating manure solids, anaerobic
digestion to extract energy, and duckweed or
algae to remove solutes. Wastewater from multiple species is anaerobically digested to generate
methane and energy, and the digestate moves on
to enclosed stacked shelf growth chambers filled
with duckweed. After doubling in under 48 h and
cleaning the water, duckweed is fermented to
separate protein from high-value simple sugars.
Christopher Bush, Co-founder of CAIS, has
worked with the XPRIZE Foundation, designing
competitions including “Feeding the Next Billion.” The team also works with the HeroX
platform where a sponsor can publicly host a
problem and cash prize for the solution, greatly
increasing the number of scientists who can see
and solve the problem and learn from the winning solution. This type of modern interdisciplinary research center, consulting firm, or
incubator that relies on datasets from large sensor
arrays and crowd sourcing looks to be increasing
in popularity, and we look forward to the variety
of applications that will be developed where
duckweed will play a role as one of several
options to reclaim resources or feed people and
livestock more effectively.
Perhaps given their ability to clean wastewater
while providing food and fresh air, duckweeds
can be seen as not only a crop species, but a life
support system. The current water recovery system on the International Space Station relies on
complex chemical treatments and reagents while
generating wastes, which has NASA interested in
developing closed-loop life support systems for
long-term missions. Many plants develop poorly
in microgravity and produce inedible biomass, so
non-gravitropic aquatic plants and specifically
duckweeds have been studied for space flight in
closed-loop systems, microgravity simulations,
and space flights since 1966 (Landolt and Kandeler 1987; Gale et al. 1989; Bluem and Paris
2003). Lemna aequinoctialis was even found to
have a 32% increase in growth rate in simulated
microgravity (Yuan and Xu 2017). Therefore,
Space Lab Technologies, LLC is currently collaborating with the University of Colorado at
Boulder on a Phase 2 grant from NASA to
develop the lG-LilyPond
TM growth chamber as
part of a life support system (Escobar and
Escobar 2017). Part of their project is studying
how bursts of high intensity light can stimulate
production of carotenoids, vitamin E, and other
nutritious secondary metabolites (DemmigAdams and Adams 2002), and how these bursts
within the light regimen can be optimized for
energy use, plant yield, and nutritional content.
Thanks to their high growth rate, ability to grow
in shallow trays, preference for ammonia, and
entirely edible nutritious biomass duckweed are
currently the prime candidates for the system.
Presently, it is designed to provide fresh food and
oxygen, with the eventual goal of converting
urine to clean water. Based on the previous
1 Importance of Duckweeds in Basic Research and Their Industrial …
13