CABBI

What CABBI does

CABBI (Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation) is a U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Center founded in 2017 and hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The center operates three integrated research themes — Feedstock Production, Conversion, and Sustainability — aimed at developing high-yielding bioenergy crops (sorghum, miscanthus, sugarcane, energycane, oilcane), efficient biomass-to-chemical conversion processes, and environmental assessments of bioenergy systems. Notable technical outputs include chromosome-scale genome assemblies for miscanthus, engineered vegetative oil sorghum (5.5% triacylglycerol in leaves; 78-fold increase over wild-type), and a CRISPR-edited sugarcane line delivering an 18% dry biomass yield increase in field trials.

CABBI has built a portfolio of proprietary research software tools, including CRISPR-COPIES (neutral integration site discovery for CRISPR/Cas editing), CROPSR (automated genome-wide gRNA design), FUN-PROSE (deep learning model for fungal gene expression prediction, r=0.85), pyFLANK (graph neural network for FST outlier detection), PAVE (LC-MS metabolomics annotation), MetaFunPrimer, and PlasmidMaker. These tools are distributed as open research infrastructure rather than commercial products. The center has accumulated 555 publications and 309 datasets in its public research archive.

The business model is grant-based: CABBI is funded by the DOE Office of Science as one of four Bioenergy Research Centers and operates as a nonprofit research organization. Research outputs, datasets, and improved crop varieties are disseminated through public repositories (NCBI, GitHub, Illinois Data Bank, the BRC Data Sharing Portal), peer-reviewed publications, and industry technology-transfer partnerships. The center collaborates with peer institutions including UIUC, UC Berkeley, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, University of Florida, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and DOE user facilities (Joint Genome Institute, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory), with workforce development via RISE and Pollen Power internship programs.

Name

CABBI

Legal name

Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation

Website

https://cabbi.bio

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CABBI is a DOE-funded nonprofit Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that develops high-yielding bioenergy crops (sorghum, miscanthus, sugarcane), biomass conversion technologies, and sustainability science, distributing outputs as open datasets, publications, and industry technology transfer.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bioenergy and Bioproducts Research

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Ethyl Alcohol Manufacturing (325193)

SIC

Agricultural Production-Crops (100)

akta.pro primary industry

Cellulosic & Advanced Ethanol Production (2G/3G) (EUAAAHAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Biofuel Feedstock Preprocessing & Pretreatment (Milling, Fractionation, Hydrolysis) (EUAAAHAF), Enzymes & Industrial Biotechnology Inputs (Enzymes, Microbial Strains, Fermentation Aids) (EUAAAIAL), Bio-based Platform & Commodity Chemicals (e.g., bio-ethylene, bio-propylene, bio-BTX, bio-methanol) (EUAAAIAA), Biofuels & Renewable Fuels Switching (Biomethane/RNG, Bio-oils, Sustainable Biomass) (EUABAJAD), Cellulosic Biofuels & Renewable Fuels (2G ethanol, SAF intermediates) (IMAMALAA), Biofuel Plant EPC, O&M & Process Technology Providers (EUAAAHAK)

Keywords

• Bioenergy research
• Plant genomics
• Biomass conversion
• Metabolic engineering
• Biofuel feedstock development

Headquarters

HQ city

Urbana

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. DOE Funding: CABBI is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as one of its Bioenergy Research Centers. This is a research grant-based funding model supporting the center's mission to develop efficient ways to grow bioenergy crops, transform biomass into valuable chemicals, and market biofuels and bioproducts.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CABBI is a DOE-funded Bioenergy Research Center that conducts integrated research on producing biofuels and bioproducts from plant materials. Its work spans three themes—Feedstock Production (developing high-yield bioenergy crops including sorghum, miscanthus, sugarcane, energycane, and oilcane), Conversion (transforming biomass into fuels and chemicals via engineered microbes and yeasts), and Sustainability (assessing environmental viability)—supported by proprietary computational platforms for genome editing, metabolomics, and gene-expression prediction, plus publicly released datasets and engineered crop germplasm.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• pyFLANK Graph Neural Network-based null distribution inference model for FST outlier detection in population genomics, used by researchers to identify genetic variants under selection.
• CRISPR-COPIES In silico platform for discovery of neutral integration sites for CRISPR/Cas-facilitated gene integration, enabling accelerated and optimized genome editing workflows for bioenergy research teams.
• CROPSR Automated platform for complex genome-wide CRISPR gRNA design and validation, supporting CABBI and partner researchers in genome engineering pipelines.
• PAVE (Peak Annotation and Verification Engine) Workflow for annotating untargeted microbial metabolomics data, processing LC-MS data from isotope-labeled microbes and systematically identifying metabolites.
• FUN-PROSE Deep learning model that predicts condition-specific gene expression in fungi using promoter sequences and transcription factor expression levels, achieving correlation up to 0.85 between predicted and observed expression.
• PlasmidMaker Design tool for plasmid construction supporting genome engineering workflows for CABBI researchers and partners.
• MetaFunPrimer Environment-specific, high-throughput primer design tool for improved quantification of target genes in microbial ecology studies.
• Vegetative Oil Sorghum Lab-to-field pipeline for engineering sorghum to accumulate triacylglycerols (TAG) in vegetative tissues for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel production; top-performing events achieved up to 5.5% TAG in leaves and 3.5% in stems under field conditions.
• Miscanthus sinensis Genome Sequence First chromosome-scale assembly of the Miscanthus sinensis genome, providing a foundational sequence resource for the Miscanthus genus and comparative genomics with sorghum and sugarcane.
• Rhodotorula toruloides Strain Development Research program developing Rhodotorula toruloides strains characterized for mating type, ploidy, and lipid production capabilities on switchgrass hydrolysate, supporting lignocellulosic biomass conversion.

Quantifiable outcome

• 18% increase in dry biomass yield in CRISPR-edited sugarcane field trials
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• HudsonAlpha Institute for BiotechnologycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates on genomics research including miscanthus genome sequencing and cell-type-specific transcriptomics of bioenergy crops. Kankshita Swaminathan leads research efforts at this institution.
• Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFellow DOE Bioenergy Research Center collaborating on complementary research areas including sorghum cell-type studies and shared research resources.
• Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)supportingTechnology or IntegrationDOE user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory providing advanced analytical capabilities for proteomics and metabolomics research.
• DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI)coreTechnology or IntegrationDOE Office of Science user facility that carried out much of the genome sequencing for CABBI projects including miscanthus genome assembly.
• University of FloridacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates on sugarcane genome editing research, led by Fredy Altpeter's team, focusing on CRISPR/Cas9 applications for improving sugarcane leaf architecture and biomass yield.
• Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution involved in genome sequencing and computational biology research, including work led by Daniel Rokhsar.
• University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary host institution for CABBI headquarters. Multiple researchers from various departments contribute to CABBI research including plant biology, crop sciences, and metabolic engineering.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Iogen Corporation: Canadian cellulosic ethanol technology company operating one of the few commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants. Targets the same cellulosic sugar platform that CABBI's miscanthus/switchgrass research enables.

Direct peers

• Agile BioFoundry: DOE-funded consortium for bioengineering platform development, with overlapping synthetic biology and microbial strain engineering capabilities. Operates as a complementary DOE research platform with comparable mission scope.
• Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC): Fellow DOE Bioenergy Research Center jointly working on bioenergy crops (sorghum) and cell-type-specific transcriptomics. CABBI explicitly partners with GLBRC on shared resources, making it the closest structural peer.
• Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI): DOE Bioenergy Research Center hosted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with an overlapping mission of developing cellulosic biofuels and biobased chemicals. Operates as a peer BRC to CABBI on the same federal funding cycle.
• Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI): DOE Bioenergy Research Center based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory focused on feedstock development and conversion. Direct structural peer to CABBI on the federal BRC program.

Broad incumbents

• BP (bp Biofuels): Integrated oil major with active biofuels and SAF investments. Operates as a downstream buyer and licensor in the same end-markets CABBI's conversion and feedstock research supports.
• LanzaTech: Commercial carbon-capture-to-fuels company using gas fermentation to produce ethanol, SAF, and chemicals. Operates in the same end-markets (SAF, renewable fuels, biochemicals) that CABBI's conversion research targets.
• POET: Largest U.S. ethanol producer with extensive corn-grain-to-ethanol operations. Anchors the grain-ethanol supply chain that CABBI's cellulosic and oil-rich feedstock research aims to complement and diversify.
• Gevo: Public company developing renewable hydrocarbon fuels including SAF from novel feedstocks. Directly competes in the SAF market CABBI's vegetative oil sorghum program targets.

Others

• Novonesis (formerly Novozymes): Global enzyme and microbial solutions provider for biofuel, food, and bioproduct industries. CABBI develops novel enzymes and microbial strains that compete with or complement Novonesis's commercial enzyme portfolio in cellulosic bioprocessing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cabbibio
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCFake
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cabbi

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CABBI