Insect Bioconversion: Technologies, Bioprocesses, and Valorized Products

Background:Insects are increasingly recognized as a scalable biological platform for converting organic waste streams into high-value products, including proteins, lipids, chitin-derived biomaterials, and bioactive compounds. While the nutritional and ecological potential of insect resources has been established, realizing this potential at scale depends on advances in bioprocess engineering, biocatalysis, and biomaterial science — areas where significant gaps remain.Beyond product development, bioconversion technologies contribute to circular bioeconomy models by transforming agricultural residues and organic waste into valorized outputs while reducing environmental pollution. Engineering these systems for efficiency, safety, and scalability is essential to support food security and sustainable production — directly advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 (health and well-being) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production).Goal:This Research Topic aims to highlight recent progress in biotechnological and bioengineering approaches that enable more efficient and controllable insect bioconversion systems. Innovations in bioreactor design, automated rearing platforms, enzymatic processing of insect biomass, and extraction of functional biomaterials such as chitosan and insect-derived biopolymers are accelerating the translation of insect resources into viable products for food, feed, and industrial applications. At the same time, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools offer new routes to enhance the biosynthetic capacity of insect systems and tailor the composition of their outputs. By bringing together these interdisciplinary advances, this Research Topic seeks to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale insect bioconversion research and industrially attractive bioprocesses.Scope and Information for Authors:This Research Topic invites original research articles and reviews that address the bioengineering and biotechnology dimensions of insect bioconversion. Research areas include, but are not limited to:
• Bioprocess engineering and bioreactor design 

•Enzymatic technologies for insect biomass processing and valorization

• Extraction, characterization and application of insect-derived biomaterials

• Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering applied to insect systems

• Digital technologies and AI-driven optimization
• Bio-upcycling strategies for insect by-products and agricultural waste streams

• Life-cycle engineering and scale-up of insect bioconversion platformsSubmissions should provide detailed mechanistic, technological, or engineering insights relevant to industrial biotechnology. Studies that integrate experimental data with bioprocess modeling or digital optimization are particularly encouraged. Topic editors: Jun Wang, Carlos L Cespedes-Acuña Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80697/insect-bioconversion-technologies-bioprocesses-and-valorized-products