From cocoa-free chocolate to meals for astronauts on the moon, the potential for biomanufactured food is driving the growth – and government funding – of a consortium of stakeholders known as BioMADE to advance bioengineering in the US.
Bioengineering, which could one day feed sailors on submarines, soldiers in war zones and communities devastated by natural disasters, is grabbing the attention of the US Energy, Defense and Commerce departments and the National Science Foundation, which increasingly see development of the industry as an issue of national security, according to David Nathan, program director of technology for BioMADE.
Over the last decade, the US federal government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the technology being developed by BioMADE (BioIndustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem) partners, but the US still lags significantly behind on the world stage.
“The bioindustrial manufacturing industry in the US currently faces a scale-up challenge due to a critical lack of pilot- to demonstration-scale infrastructure. As a result, American companies often have to seek relevant facilities overseas, taking American innovation with them and risking IP loss,” BioMADE said in August.
Building BioMADE
Since its inception in 2021, BioMADE has received hundreds of millions in public funding, including $87 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD). The initial $87 million was combined with $187 million in contributions from 31 companies; 57 colleges, universities and nonprofits; and two venture capital groups, according to the nonprofit.
The biggest funding boost came in 2023, when DoD funneled $450 million to BioMADE.
“Since BioMADE’s launch in 2021, more than $75 million has been invested across nearly 40 projects around the country,” the nonprofit said in 2023. “These projects are creating new biomanufactured products, designing state-of-the-art equipment, accelerating technology commercialization, advancing defense capabilities and training the needed workforce.”
Over the last few years, that has more than doubled to 92 individual projects like cocoa-free chocolate and space food, BioMADE’s vision is to build pilot plant infrastructure to help the federal government and its private-sector partners prove scalability of bioengineered concepts and products.
“It’s become clear to us from our membership, from the government and from different reports, that the US is severely lacking in pilot- and demonstration-scale equipment for precision fermentation,” Nathan said.
That means BioMADE’s 300-plus members now must take these projects to facilities overseas, increasing the cost and risking intellectual property, according to Nathan. Those include food manufacturers, such as Cargill, MycoTechnology, BioBrew, California Cultured, The Mushroom Meat Co, Primient and Upside Foods, among others.
This infrastructure shortage has prompted BioMADE to pursue building scaling pilot plants across the US, starting with facilities planned for Minneapolis, Minn.; Hayward, Calif.; and near Ames, Iowa.
Pilot plant rollout
The first of the three pilot plants is expected to open in California next spring and will be the smallest of the facilities at about 25,000 square feet.
The California pilot plant, which will include food-grade testing capabilities, will operate the smallest fermentation tanks at about 4,000 liters, Nathan said.
The facilities in California and Minneapolis were previously owned by Lygos, a sustainable specialty chemicals company, which is partnering with BioMADE in the project.
“BioMADE will independently operate the Hayward facility, while Lygos will remain a key customer of the facility’s expanded capabilities,” BioMADE announced in 2025. “BioMADE will acquire the processing equipment and further invest in the facility to expand capabilities in fermentation capacity and downstream processing.”
The 15,000-square-foot Iowa facility, operated in conjunction with Iowa State University, is the only other of the three labs that will include food-grade testing. The facility, which will include 10,000-liter fermentation tanks, is expected to open in 2028, along with the Minneapolis pilot lab, Nathan explained.
“That one will also be capable of handling food products … and will focus a little bit more on feedstocks for precision fermentation, including for production of other food,” Nathan said.
Private sector partnerships
The private-sector partnerships are key to BioMADE’s strategy, according to Nathan, who explained that the consortium matches federal funding dollar for dollar.
“Our members are expected to put up an equal amount to the amount that they’re getting from the government,” according to Nathan. “That is with the intention that we’re really maximizing everybody’s dollars, we’re leveraging that power. There is a benefit to the member, but it’s not something that’s a handout. It’s something that can increase their value.”
Similar public-private partnerships have developed across the bioengineering landscape, such as the partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s iFAB precision fermentation accelerator and major commodity players like ADM and Primient.
Similar to BioMADE’s pilot project, iFAB’s Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab (IBRL) helps smaller companies prove scalability with smaller precision fermentation tanks with 2,000-liter capacity.
Universities as well as state and local governments also are pitching in funding for BioMADE’s pilot facilities, according to Nathan. “Federal dollars are driving it, but it is also local government and private funds that are helping support the installation of these (pilot facilities) as well, so it really is a partnership all the way around.
BioMADE announces 14 new projects with $21.4M in funding from Department of Defense and National Science Foundation
Biomanufacturing nonprofit BioMADE announced in late April that the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation are directing $21.4 million to 14 bioengineering research projects spearheaded by 23 of the nonprofit’s member organizations.
“Global competition for bioindustrial manufacturing is at a critical tipping point, with many countries around the world investing heavily in biotechnology innovation and commercialization. If the US is to remain competitive, we must do the same,” said BioMADE CEO Douglas Friedman.
BioMADE noted that bioindustrial manufacturing also supports American farmers because of the industry’s use of feedstocks such as corn, soy and sugar beets.
The projects include:
* Cell-cultured chocolate: Through novel bioreactors, improved vessel and media sterilization methods and in-line biomass sensors, the project aims to lower the production costs of high-quality chocolate products by using cacao plant cell culture.
* Development of genomic language models to predict optimal genomes for commercial protein production: This project will create a predictive AI model to accelerate strain optimization for the production of resilient and cost-effective proteins capable of wound healing, advanced nutrition, chemical defense or other defense-relevant compounds.
* Resilient domestic feedstocks for the US precision fermentation industry: This project aims to improve domestic bioindustrial manufacturing outcomes and increase competitiveness through enhanced Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of feedstocks.
BioMADE origin story
Although BioMADE launched a mere five years ago, its origin stretches back to the 2012 launch of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) under the Obama administration.
The original launch called for 15 institutes, and over several years, about a dozen were established. Among those was the launch of a pilot institute with funding from the National Science Foundation and the departments of Defense, Commerce and Energy.
“The pilot institute will address a focused technology area to reduce the risk and cost of commercializing and scaling up new manufacturing products and processes,” the White House announced in 2012.
That effort continued through the Trump and Biden administrations with the intent of advancing critical technologies where the government sees a need, Nathan explained.
“What’s interesting about BioMADE is we’re using biology to produce materials, chemicals, feedstocks, foods and things that can fall into almost any other category,” he said. “So we are making things that are precursors for anything from food to plastics to carbon fibers to aviation fuels to resins for composite materials, surfactants to creating domestic sources of natural rubber. So, to some degree we’re making foundational things that start to have applications across industries.”
