Enepret was founded to commercialize technologies that harness plants and microbes to produce rare and valuable terpene compounds for diverse market applications. As the company has grown, we’ve expanded our capabilities, expertise, and services with strong support from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other partners in the life sciences and synthetic biology space. Our goal is to be a leader in translating biotechnology innovations into real-world solutions—from specialty ingredients to pharmaceuticals.

One of our core efforts is engineering baker’s yeast to produce triterpenes such as squalene for demanding applications. Traditionally, squalene is sourced from shark liver oil—an environmentally unsustainable and contamination-prone source. Enepret’s proprietary strains and downstream processing instead deliver >99% pure triterpene oils. We were the first to demonstrate the use of synthetic biology-derived triterpenes in an emulsion vaccine adjuvant (Tateno et al., 2020).

We are also advancing microbial production of botryococcene, a structural isomer of squalene that naturally occurs only in the alga Botryococcus braunii. While algae-based production is inefficient, Enepret’s unique IP position enables us to recreate the biological blueprint for botryococcene in yeast, producing it as a high-purity, single-molecule product. Botryococcene shows promising applications in fuels, lubricants, and potentially pharmaceuticals.

Our base technology originated from intellectual property developed at the University of Kentucky in Dr. Joe Chappell’s lab, a world leader in terpene biosynthesis research since 1985. Since our founding in 2017, Enepret has continued to build on this foundation, developing sustainable, biotech-driven solutions that strengthen supply chains and create new market opportunities across industries.

Contact us to learn more about our internal technologies, capabilities, and how we can partner to advance your life science projects.

Reference: Tateno, M. et al. (2020) “Synthetic biology-derived triterpenes as efficacious immunomodulating adjuvants.” Scientific Reports 10:17090.