Business Concentrates ENERGY STORAGE
Sulfur-based battery firms secure cash Two firms vying to develop lithium-sulfur batteries, which could be more energy-dense and cheaper to make than today’s lithium-ion batteries, have received major boosts to their funding. Baseload Renewables, a 2017 spin-off from MIT, has raised $7.4 million from an undisclosed investor. Baseload will use the money to advance its lithium-sulfur flow batteries, which are designed to meet demand spikes on electricity grids. Baseload’s batteries feature cheap, readily available sulfur dissolved in water as the anode. The firm anticipates that its technology will enable batteries to be made for between 10 and 20% of the cost of equivalent lithium-ion batteries. The firm raised almost $2 million from MIT’s technology incubator, the Engine, when it launched last year. Meanwhile, U.K.-based Oxis Energy, a developer of batteries featuring a lithium anode and a sulfur-based cathode, says it will receive $5 million from Aerotec, a Brazilian private equity fund. The Aerotec investment will enable Oxis to set up a subsidiary and R&D center in Brazil. But not all lithium-sulfur technology development has gone as planned. Sion Power, a battery materials start-up in which BASF invested $50 million in 2012, tells C&EN it has shelved its lithium-sulfur research. “It was a technology decision,” says Sion’s marketing director, Angela Kliever. The firm is now pursuing lithium-ion battery technology featuring a lithium anode rather than the usual carbon anode. With 450 charging cycles, the lithium anode technology can handle an order of magnitude more cycles than the firm’s lithium-sulfur anode technology. “The decision we made was all about the numbers,” Kliever says.—ALEX SCOTT
CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Levi’s to cut chemical use No one wants to be caught wearing dad jeans. And so while denim trends are always evolving, it’s clear that the vintage look has legs. Now Levi Strauss & Co. has a faster and greener process to make new jeans look old. It is swapping oxidizing chemicals and pumice stones for digital image files and fabric-zapping lasers. To make jeans with wear attributes like whisker patterns, worn spots, or crackle textures, Levi’s designers are rolling out digital image software for placing each detail. At the manufacturing plant, the digital file will guide a laser to embed the design. Then the garment will be rinsed as usual. The process reduces the number of chemicals needed to produce today’s endless variations of worn and faded jeans, according to Levi’s. It is common to finish a pair of denim jeans using pumice stones and 15 types of chemicals, including bleaches, peroxides, enzymes, acids, lubricants, wetting agents, and softeners. One finishing chemical Levi’s says it plans to do away with is potassium permanganate (KMnO4), a strong oxidizer. Overall, the new process will help the company reach its commitment to eliminate discharges of hazardous chemicals by 2020. In addition, using fewer chemicals in washes and rinses will help the company expand its program to recycle water at its facilities. Levi’s says the digital process will greatly speed up its manufacturing. Until now, workers made wear patterns on each pair by hand. By using lasers, workers can produce a distressed-looking garment in 90 seconds versus 20 or 30 minutes. By making “just in time” jean designs, Levi’s can avoid waste when tastes change. “We believe it is possible to be both agile and sustainable without compromising the authenticity our consumers expect from us,” Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh commented on the company’s blog.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
BIOTECHNOLOGY
A new company called Senti Biosciences wants to improve cell and gene therapies by using genetic circuits to make the treatments more precise and less toxic. Synthetic biologists Tim Lu and Jim Collins from MIT were two of Senti’s four cofounders in 2016. Last week, Senti announced $53 million in series A funding. The company’s initial focus is cell therapy for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Lu explains that a genetic circuit could be designed to attract a cell to inflammation caused by an autoimmune disease and then release anti-inflammatory drugs in
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 5, 2018
proportion to the problem—unlike a drug that blocks inflammation all over the body. “These features will be really important if we are going to make cell therapies and gene therapies another major wave of medicine,” Lu says. Senti’s first genetic circuits will release a protein—such as an antibody, cytokine, or chemokine—to treat cancer or autoimmune diseases. In October, Lu’s group at MIT published a study showing that a genetic circuit could trigger T cells to spot and kill cancer cells in mice while leaving healthy
cells alone (Cell 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j. cell.2017.09.049). Senti is building on this work to create a genetic circuit that activates a T cell therapy only in the presence of two proteins found on a cancer cell. “Even a simple increase in sophistication, like sensing two or three antigens, or signatures, before triggering the cell’s activity, is going to make a really big clinical impact,” Lu says. Senti is also developing genetic circuits in human cells to sense inflammatory signals like TNF and locally release anti-TNF drugs in response.—RYAN CROSS
C R E D I T: S H UT T E RSTO CK
Senti raises $53 million to improve cell therapies
