Nucelis

Nucelis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cibus, a leading agricultural biotechnology company that develops traits in microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria, and algae to produce specialty ingredients for the nutrition, flavor, and fragrance industries.

Nucelis provides the Accelerated Strain Advancement Platform (ASAP), a specialty ingredient development platform, combining Cibus' gene-editing technologies (RTDS) with advanced fermentation and pilot-scale capabilities, downstream processes, and purification methods. The company also works with industry partners and customers via a licensing business model, where partners fund the initial development work performed by Nucelis to deliver a new or optimized strain. Upon commercialization of the new strain, its partners pay Nucelis an agreed-upon royalty based on the volume of products produced by the customers using the new commercial strain.

Nucelis provides vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) for human nutrition and functional food markets, produced through controlled fermentation and purification. The technology is non-transgenic and uses a yeast strain (Yarrowia lipolytica) to produce ergosterol through gene editing and metabolic engineering. The ergosterol is then converted to vitamin D2 by exposure to light. Commercial samples of Vitamin D2 were available upon request as of October 2023. Nucelis secured a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for the production of vitamins D2 and D3 in May 2020.

Key customers and partnerships

In May 2017, Nucelis partnered with Fermic, a Mexican company with expertise in fermentation and downstream manufacturing, to develop fermentation processes, with Fermic handling ergosterol sales and Nucelis receiving royalties based on sales volumes. In December 2018, Nucelis partnered with Nanjing Darwingenetech, a Chinese manufacturer, to identify and collaborate with Chinese customers using Nucelis' gene editing and fermentation expertise. This collaboration also resulted in Nucelis signing its first customer agreement, with undisclosed financial terms.