In the lab, Foray has demonstrated the feasibility of making samples of fragrance products, and they’re working to refine their process to improve and scale production. But generating successful cell lines—finding the right recipe to turn on the production of target products in the cells—is especially challenging. And because fragrance products are largely derived from more than one compound, getting those in the correct proportions hasn’t been easy.
“We’re bringing biomanufacturing to forestry, and leveraging its tools to protect and restore forests,” says Beckwith. Applications could range from food and medical products to cosmetics and bioplastics. Trees are rich in useful chemicals with significant medicinal value: tree-sourced compounds serve as chemotherapeutics, vaccine adjuvants, and anti-inflammatory drugs.
Shawn Mansfield, a professor of forestry and tree biotechnology at the University of British Columbia, says he’s skeptical that the technology can have much impact in the big scheme of things. Mansfield, who has worked with cottonwoods and plant tissue techniques, says the production of specialty chemicals “will not offset the harvest of trees.” But Beckwith says that because she and her colleagues can grow tree cells in a controlled environment, they can grow the products up to “100x faster” with less land than what’s possible with traditional methods. This means they can harvest what the trees make without cutting any trees down.
Beckwith and her team hope to commercialize Foray’s biomanufacturing technology and generate profit through the products that they’re developing. But it’s still early days; the company has yet to send any samples for external validation, and scaling the technology would require significant financial and research investment. They hope what they’re learning about the process could aid seed production to support forest restoration in the near future.
Foray’s vision is big, but Beckwith believes in what the future holds and isn’t afraid to fail. “We don’t see failure as a bad thing,” she says, “but as an essential tool to move us forward.”