Caravel Bio, a Portland, Oregon-based biotechnology startup, has secured a $1,246,984 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Announced on October 28, 2026, the award will support the development of protein engineering technologies designed to create and scale proteins with expanded chemical capabilities.
Founded in 2022 and led by founder and CEO Trevor Nicks, Caravel Bio develops a biomolecular engineering platform that combines cell-free protein synthesis, microfluidic droplets and bacterial spore display. Its technology enables researchers to generate and evaluate millions of protein variants in parallel, producing experimental datasets that can support machine learning-driven protein design.
The NSF funding will support further development of Caravel’s synthetic biology platform, including efforts to improve the stability of engineered enzymes, expand protein display capabilities across additional bacterial species and develop more efficient methods for separating enzymes from reaction products.
The company also plans to increase the scale of its machine learning datasets, extend its platform to additional enzyme classes and pursue pilot applications involving DNA synthesis, carbon capture and rare earth element separations.
Caravel’s approach explores the use of non-canonical amino acids, which extend beyond the 20 amino acids commonly used in natural protein synthesis. By incorporating these additional chemical building blocks, the company aims to develop proteins with properties suited to industrial biotechnology and other applications.
The new award follows a $275,000 NSF Phase I grant received in 2024. Caravel also announced in October 2025 that it had been selected to lead a separate $7.8 million NSF-supported collaborative research initiative focused on developing and scaling new protein technologies.
As part of its technology development, Caravel is working to connect laboratory-scale protein discovery with practical manufacturing requirements, using experimental data to guide successive rounds of protein engineering.
