How Scavenging E-Waste with Biotech Could Improve Security of the Global Economy
Rare earth elements are absolutely fundamental to today’s increasingly tech-dominated global economy. They’re essential to smartphones, screens, hard drives, fiber optics, EV’s, military technologies, medical devices, wind turbines, etc. Ten years ago the term ‘rare earths’ was hardly known outside select circles in technology and international trade. But with China controlling 90% of the supply of rare earths this issue has exploded during the Trump 2.0 administration even forming part of the justification to takeover Greenland.
Sahara Bhanot joins us at TEDxManchester to discuss her research on how we could use biology and chemistry to create an entirely new source of these critical minerals by scavenging the scourge of e-waste around the world.
About Sahara Bhanot
Dr Sahara Bhanot is a biotechnologist, entrepreneur, and Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of LanthaGen Bio, a startup focused on developing sustainable, synthetic biology-based rare earth metal extraction systems.
She holds a BSc in Chemistry and an MPhil in Biotechnology from the University of Manchester. She recently earned her PhD also at Manchester. Her doctoral research, sponsored by the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub, involved engineering E. coli microbes to produce plant-derived therapeutics, specifically the anti-inflammatory flavonoid compounds found in the Cannabis sativa plant.
Alongside LanthaGen Bio CEO Dan Healy & CTO Ellie Goulding, Sahara has led the startup to a number of early major wins including a recent €1.31 million funding round through SPRIND, the prestigious Germany federal agency modeled after DARPA in the US to incubate breakthrough innovations often considered too risky for traditional venture capital.