BEEM: Bioproducts and Enzymes from Environmental Metagenomes is a 4-year Genome Canada and Ontario Research Fund-sponsored project led by Professor Elizabeth Edwards of the University of Toronto and Dr. David Major of Geosyntec Consultants.  BEEM research uses genomic strategies to identify and harness naturally occurring microbes that can transform low-value co-products, feedstock residues and wastes into high-value bioproducts, or can degrade common environmental pollutants to decontaminate land and water.

Our international team of chemical engineers, biologists, policy experts and industrial partners has an extensive academic research record and real-world experience in designing and commercializing environmentally sound bioprocesses, and consulting on their associated public policies.  Our objective is to develop measures, both scientific and policy-based, to anticipate, avoid and remediate the environmental impacts of a bioeconomy.  New industrial partners are welcomed; please visit www.beem.utoronto.ca or send an inquiry to info.beem@utoronto.ca.

The project’s goals will be accomplished by tapping into the vast reservoir of metabolic diversity found in the microbial world to find microbes with specific abilities to transform compounds of interest. We are establishing a high throughput “pipeline” from environmental sample to product, beginning with samples from unique environments that are rich in uncharacterized microbes, through enrichment of microbial activity, metagenome sequencing, metabolic enzyme and pathway discovery, computational modeling and optimization of enzymatic transformation reactions to final bioremediation and biotransformation applications.

Achievements to date include enriching several anaerobic consortia with novel waste degradation abilities, structural and functional characterization of dehalogenases and marine oil-degrading enzymes, modeling uranium bioremediation at a contaminated site, and performing a life cycle assessment/costing for anaerobic digestion.