Cell factories for sustainable production of valuable chemicals – the pivotal role of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The green economy aims to substitute polluting chemicals and processes with sustainable counterparts deriving from microbial cell factories that provide catalytic specificity and efficient conversions. In this manuscript, we explore how the bio-based production of chemicals enables the production of valuable molecules while reducing contemporary society's dependence on fossil fuels thereby alleviating part of the environmental burden. We discuss several emerging bio-based solutions and their impacts, with a particular focus on the potential of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in leading industrial microbial fermentation. Yeast remains a versatile, productive, and robust platform for producing metabolites and recombinant proteins.