Third Grant in 2012 Focusing on Company's Leading-Edge Crop Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Metabolix,
Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX), an innovation-driven bioscience company focused on
delivering sustainable solutions for plastics, chemicals and energy,
today announced that it has received a subaward under the Advanced
Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) to work with the UCLA
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science to redesign
carbon fixation pathways to increase the efficiency of capturing energy
from sunlight. This is the third grant awarded to Metabolix in 2012 for
leading-edge crop research targeting multi-gene expression and
transformation of plants, and builds upon its years of experience in
transforming plants for bio-product production. Funding from these three
grants will total nearly $1 million and will run through 2014.
Under the UCLA Engineering ARPA-E grant, Metabolix researchers will work
closely with Professor James Liao, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
professor and chair in the department of chemical and biomolecular
engineering and a recent Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award
recipient, to engineer alternate biochemical pathways for carbon
fixation into the crop plant, camelina. Metabolix's multi-gene
expression technology and its significant prior work in camelina will
help increase the number of new traits expressed in each plant, which is
expected to produce new pathways to a greater variety of liquid fuels
from camelina and other plants. Specifically, the ARPA-E grant focuses
on carbon fixation, which is the key process that plants use to convert
carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere into higher energy
molecules (such as sugars) using energy from the sun. Metabolix will
work with UCLA Engineering to investigate an alternative biochemical
pathway that theoretically could allow a plant to capture twice as much
CO2 using the same amount of light, with the end goal of
improving the productivity of both food and fuel crops.
"Metabolix brings a unique set of capabilities and experience as well as
a proven track record of success in plant science to our ARPA-E
project," said Dr. Liao. "With its proven capability to engineer a
variety of crop plants for the production of industrial products,
Metabolix will be a valuable partner in our work to increase carbon
fixation in plants and enable the production of a greater variety of
liquid fuels in camelina and other plants. We look forward to working
with Metabolix in our quest to generate more cost-effective biofuels."
"We are delighted that another of our project teams has chosen to work
with Metabolix to move PETRO's high-performance, dedicated energy crops
closer to realization," says ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Jonathan
Burbaum. "If successful, such crops promise to provide a viable,
domestic and renewable alternative to imported petroleum."
The UCLA Engineering ARPA-E grant is the third crops science grant
awarded to Metabolix in 2012. In January, the Company initiated work on
an ARPA-E-funded project to work with the University
of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst to help increase the natural
ability of camelina to produce oils and add the production of
energy-dense terpene molecules that can be easily converted into liquid
fuels. In April, Metabolix Oilseeds, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Metabolix, was awarded a grant for the development of capacity building
for commercial-scale polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)-producing camelina.
"Driving a growing interest in our crops science program is the interest
from brand owners, consumers and government organizations for developing
renewable, non-petroleum-based liquid fuels," said Dr. Oliver Peoples,
chief scientific officer and vice president, research at Metabolix.
"Metabolix is a pioneer in plant science and we have a deep history
working with leading institutions to successfully further the
development of technologies to enhance the productivity of crops. We
look forward to applying our strong capabilities in crop science to the
work with UCLA Engineering to improve the carbon fixation pathways of
camelina and produce new routes to biofuels."
About Metabolix
Metabolix, Inc. is an innovation-driven bioscience company delivering
sustainable solutions to the plastics, chemicals and energy industries.
Metabolix is developing and commercializing MirelTM and Mvera,TM
a family of high-performance bioplastics which are biobased and
biodegradable alternatives to many petroleum-based plastics. Metabolix's
biobased chemicals platform utilizes its novel "FAST" recovery process
to enable the production of cost-effective, "drop-in" replacements for
petroleum-based industrial chemicals. Metabolix is also developing a
platform for co-producing plastics, chemicals and energy from crops.
Metabolix has established an industry-leading intellectual property
portfolio that, together with its knowledge of advanced industrial
practice, provides a foundation for industry collaborations.
For more information, please visit www.metabolix.com.
(MBLX-G)
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities
Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do
not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned
that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical
statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the
expected results of Metabolix research programs, constitute
forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those anticipated and are detailed in
Metabolix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Metabolix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking
information contained in this press release or with respect to the
announcements described herein.
Media and General Inquiries:
Metabolix, Inc.
Lynne H.
Brum, 617-682-4693
LBrum@metabolix.com
or
Schwartz
MSL Boston
Keith Giannini or Kirsten Swenson, 781-684-0770
metabolix@schwartzmsl.com
or
Investors:
ICR
James
Palczynski, 203-682-8229
james.palczynski@icrinc.com
Source: Metabolix, Inc.
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