Bluestem Biosciences’ Renewable Chemicals Aim to Benefit the Environment, Ag Industry
- published: 2024/05/28
- contact: NBDC Communications - Nebraska Business Development Center
- phone: 402.554.6256
- email: kjefferson@unomaha.edu
Omaha, Nebraska – This story was originally published in the Nebraska Business Development Center 2023 Annual Report.
Bluestem Biosciences, Inc. is a renewable chemicals company focused on leveraging agriculture feedstocks and existing energy infrastructure through leading-edge synthetic biology to positively impact the environment, expand agricultural economies and domestic supply chains, and build a more sustainable, bio-based chemical future for the United States.
Headquartered in Omaha with employees working remotely in other states, Bluestem Biosciences is the Nebraska Business Development Center 2023 Innovation Business of the Year.
Founded in 2022 by CEO Billy Hagstrom, COO Tyler Autera, and CSO Jared Wenger, Ph.D., Bluestem Biosciences is leveraging digital biology to facilitate the discovery of biomanufacturing methods for the sustainable production of decarbonized bio-chemicals.
Put simply, Bluestem Biosciences seeks to manufacture chemicals from microorganisms, not oil. Creating bio-based replacements to petroleum-derived products such as acrylics, nylon, and plastics will expand opportunities in the agriculture industry and impact the environment by reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 75 percent or more, the company says.
Creating bio-based replacements to petroleum-derived products such as acrylics, nylon, and plastics will expand opportunities in the agriculture industry and impact the environment by reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 75 percent or more, the company says.
Hagstrom says Bluestem Biosciences chose the Midwest to build the company by taking advantage of the region’s agricultural foundation, its existing infrastructure and workforce, and the potential for public and private partnerships. “Ultimately, the bioeconomy is inexorably linked with agriculture,” he says. “Bluestem is committed to agriculture.”
Bluestem Biosciences intends to use the region’s ethanol infrastructure to produce bio-based replacements to petrochemical derivatives. The same agricultural feedstocks serve as inputs to Bluestem Biosciences’ anaerobic (without the presence of oxygen) fermentation system, which the company has genetically programmed to maximize bioproduction.
Hagstrom says Nebraska is ideally situated to become a hub for biomanufacturing. Currently, the state has approximately 18,000 jobs in the industry, from scientists to soil testers, according to Bio Nebraska, a local trade group. Cargill’s campus in Blair, which includes Germany-based Evonik and Danish-owned Novozymes, is the nation’s largest bioprocessing campus in the country.
In its first year of operation, Bluestem Biosciences announced a pre-seed financing round of $5 million, obtaining investment from Zero Infinity Partners, Navigator CO2 Ventures, Invest Nebraska, and angel investor Robert Sali. In September 2023, Agile BioFoundry (ABF), which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), announced the selection of Bluestem Biosciences as one of five external collaborations to receive a portion of a $3 million award to conduct research and development needed to accelerate the U.S. biomanufacturing sector.
In February, the company announced the filing of 24 patent applications protecting its anaerobic chemical platform, “with a combined total addressable market over $100 billion.”
Josh Nichol-Caddy, Director of the NBDC Innovation & Technology Program, says his team first met with Bluestem Biosciences’ leadership in the summer of 2022. At that time, program consultants shared details of the various grant programs available from Nebraska’s Department of Economic Development, and recommended applying for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 0 grant as well as Academic Research and Development funding, given the company’s relationship with fermentation researchers at the University of Nebraska.
Nichol-Caddy says the funding opportunities became more of a reality for the company once it hired Cameron Rylance, a former research fellow at the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), as Bluestem Biosciences’ Director of Government Affairs and Sustainability. Rylance worked closely with NBDC consultants to apply for USDA SBIR Phase I funding in the fall of 2022. “Although that application was not funded, they were under serious consideration and received meaningful feedback and encouragement to resubmit the following year,” Nichol-Caddy says.
While waiting for USDA’s SBIR submission window to reopen, Rylance applied the USDA feedback to a Department of Energy SBIR Phase I submission. Bluestem Biosciences received a notice of award in June 2023.
Hagstrom says the availability of resources such as the NBDC distinguishes the Midwest from support services elsewhere in the country. “The fact that I can pick up the phone and call Josh and his team is amazing,” he says. “I can’t imagine this level of support system anywhere else. In any company’s early stage, you’re looking for guidance and validation. Josh and his team gave us that and more.”
Bluestem Biosciences is eager to move forward in its efforts to decarbonize the chemical industry, Hagstrom says.
“Our technology has the potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the chemical industry, and to provide a sustainable solution for the bioproduction of chemicals,” he says. “Through our recent patent application and accomplishments to date, Bluestem and our growing team are well-positioned to transform infrastructure, beginning in the Midwest.”