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3w ago

Engineered Yeast Converts Urine Into Implant-Grade Hydroxyapatite

The modified 'osteoyeast' mimics bone-forming cells to recover calcium and phosphate from wastewater at commercial costs below $20 per kilogram.

A dental professional in surgical gloves and mask points to a model showing a dental implant integrated with natural teeth, under a clinical examination light. The image visually represents the application of hydroxyapatite in bone and dental implants—contextualizing the article's focus on converting human urine into implant-grade materials using synthetic yeast.
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Overview

  • Researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Irvine and UIUC used synthetic biology to engineer Saccharomyces boulardii into an 'osteoyeast' strain that crystallizes hydroxyapatite inside cell compartments.
  • The system demonstrated production of roughly 1 gram of implant-grade hydroxyapatite per kilogram of urine within 24 hours at an estimated cost of $19 per kilogram.
  • The process captures excess nutrients from wastewater, reducing environmental pollution while generating high-value material for dental and bone implants.
  • Techno-economic modeling suggests a city-scale osteoyeast facility could generate about $1.4 million in annual profit and access a global hydroxyapatite market exceeding $3.5 billion by 2030.
  • The patented platform is now available for commercial licensing and researchers are developing new strains to produce other bio-based materials and enable eco-friendly bio-mining.