ONC's Fermentation and Metabolic Engineering (FME) group focuses on the discovery and development of marine microbes for the production of a variety of nutraceutical and functional food products, including Omega-3 oils and anti-oxidant compounds.

Most of the group's R&D is carried out in several specialized ONC laboratories, including fermentation (upstream processing), downstream processing, analytical and genetics. FME also collaborates with private companies and academic institutions worldwide.

Innovations include combining established isolation and screening techniques with compound purity and activity, fermentation titer and genetic based analytical calculations.

FME specialties include: isolating and optimizing marine micro-organisms fermentation using a suite of fully-controlled fermentation systems, analyzing organic compounds produced or consumed, downstream process optimization of target microorganisms for commercial production of high value bio-products.