Recent technological advancements in synthetic and systems biology have enabled the construction of microbial cell factories expressing diverse heterologous pathways in unprecedentedly short time scales. However, the translation of such laboratory scale breakthroughs to industrial bioprocesses remains a major bottleneck. In this study, an accelerated bioprocess development approach was employed to optimize the biosynthetic pathway of the blockbuster chemotherapy drug, Taxol. Statistical design of experiments approaches were coupled with an industrially relevant high-throughput microbioreactor system to optimize production of key Taxol intermediates, Taxadien-5α-ol and Taxadien-5α-yl-acetate, in engineered yeast cell factories. The optimal factor combination was determined via data driven statistical modelling and validated in 1L bioreactors leading to a 2.1-fold improvement in taxane production compared to a typical defined media. Elucidation and mitigation of a nutrient limitation enhanced product titers a further two-fold and titers of the critical Taxol precursors, Taxadien-5α-ol and Taxadien-5α-yl-acetate were improved to 34 and 11 mg/L, representing a three-fold improvement compared to the highest literature titers in S. cerevisiae. Comparable titers were obtained when the process was scaled up a further five-fold using 5 L bioreactors. The results of this study highlight the benefits of a holistic design of experiments guided approach to expedite early stage bioprocess development.

Taxadien-5α-hydroxylase and taxadien-5α-ol O-acetyltransferase catalyse the oxidation of taxadiene to taxadien-5α-ol and subsequent acetylation to taxadien-5α-yl-acetate in the biosynthesis of the blockbuster anti-cancer drug, paclitaxel (Taxol). Despite decades of research, the promiscuous and multispecific CYP725A4 enzyme remains a major bottleneck in microbial biosynthetic pathway development. In this study, an interdisciplinary approach was applied for the construction and optimisation of the early pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, across a range of bioreactor scales. High-throughput microscale optimisation enhanced total oxygenated taxane titre to 39.0±5.7 mg/L and total taxane product titres were comparable at micro and mini-bioreactor scale at 95.4±18.0 and 98.9 mg/L, respectively. The introduction of pH control successfully mitigated a reduction of oxygenated taxane production, enhancing the potential taxadien-5α-ol isomer titre to 19.2 mg/L, comparable to the 23.8±3.7 mg/L achieved at microscale. A combination of bioprocess optimisation and increased GC-MS resolution at 1L bioreactor scale facilitated taxadien-5α-yl-acetate detection with a final titre of 3.7 mg/L. Total oxygenated taxane titres were improved 2.7-fold at this scale to 78 mg/L, the highest reported titre in yeast. Critical parameters affecting the productivity of the engineered strain were identified across a range of scales, providing a foundation for the development of robust integrated bioprocess control systems.