Caravel Bio has been having a pretty good fall. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because the startup won $150K at the Bend Venture Conference, this month. But it turns out the feds had already placed a bet, as well. Caravel landed an NSF SBIR Phase II award for $1,246,984 following a $275,000 Phase I award in 2024.
The proposed project aims to develop a synthetic biology platform that leverages a process called spore-display immobilization, in which bacteria make and assemble enzymes on the surface of spores, a self-assembling and genetically encoded microparticle. While enzyme catalysis is used in a wide range of industries, the ability to create enzymes with thermal and chemical stability that are also recyclable remains a challenge. By applying directed evolution and high-throughput screening technologies to spore-displayed enzymes, the platform enables rapid prototyping of spore-enzyme variants to improve important variables like enzyme activity, stability, and loading density. Phase I used lipases to create a spore-displayed lipase variant with an optimal operating temperature 20 °C higher than the soluble parent enzyme.
Phase II has three objectives:
- Make those enzymes last longer through genetic code expansion.
- Get the spore trick working on bacteria other than Bacillus subtilis.
- Find a low cost way to separate the spores from reaction products.
The pitch is customizable enzyme solutions for industrial uses. An alternative to conventional chemical catalysts that skips the toxic stuff.
According the the Portland Business Journal:
It’s a strategy that means “we move a little slower, but candidly, what we were proposing at the beginning was high-risk and high-reward tech development,” Nicks told the Business Journal. “It would take 12 to 24 months of building in the lab before delivering a product to someone. The NSF has mechanisms to support that.”
For all the details, check out the award on SBIR.gov. For more on the company, visit — or point your agent at — Caravel Bio.
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