title: Mapping the patent landscape of synthetic biology for fine chemical production pathways.
abstract: A goal of synthetic biology bio-foundries is to innovate through an iterative design/build/test/learn pipeline. In assessing the value of new chemical production routes, the intellectual property (IP) novelty of the pathway is important. Exploratory studies can be carried using knowledge of the patent/IP landscape for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. In this paper, we perform an assessment of pathways as potential targets for chemical production across the full catalogue of reachable chemicals in the extended metabolic space of chassis organisms, as computed by the retrosynthesis-based algorithm RetroPath. Our database for reactions processed by sequences in heterologous pathways was screened against the PatSeq database, a comprehensive collection of more than 150M sequences present in patent grants and applications. We also examine related patent families using Derwent Innovations. This large-scale computational study provides useful insights into the IP landscape of synthetic biology for fine and specialty chemicals production.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Centre for Fine and Specialty Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0993-5625
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carbonell
authors.affiliation: Manchester Centre for Fine and Specialty Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK.|Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gök
authors.affiliation: Manchester Centre for Fine and Specialty Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK.|Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.|School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 685 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0345, USA.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shapira
authors.affiliation: Manchester Centre for Fine and Specialty Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 7DN, UK.|MICALIS Institute, INRA, Domaine de Vilvert, 78352, Jouy en Josas Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Loup
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Faulon
mesh_terms: D001688:Biological Products / Q000378:metabolism*; D018973:Intellectual Property; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products