Microbia and DuPont collaborate to develop novel biomanufacturing process

Feb 7 2006

Microbia, Inc. has announced the formation of a collaborative research and development program between DuPont Central Research & Development (CR&D) and Microbia's Precision Engineering business unit.

The companies will work together to develop an economically viable biomanufacturing process for a chemical currently manufactured from petrochemical-based raw materials. DuPont CR&D will fund the joint research and development effort. Microbia will also be eligible to receive performance-based payments through the course of the program.

"DuPont is a premier chemical company with a strong track record of technical achievement and a commitment to developing environmentally sustainable processes based on renewable resources," said Richard Bailey, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of Microbia's Precision Engineering business. "Not only does this collaboration provide further validation of our technology, but also it aligns Microbia with a worldwide leader in the increasingly important area of green chemistry."

"Microbia has the capability to accelerate the rate of process development for this important project," said John Pierce, director of DuPont's Biochemical Science & Engineering section of Central Research & Development. "We believe their association analysis technologies will more rapidly identify those genetic elements essential for solving a complex biological challenge and, when combined with DuPont's metabolic engineering capabilities, will accelerate our commercialization timeline."

Microbia's Precision Engineering business applies molecular genetics and proprietary profiling methods to rationally design microbes for the efficient production of commercially valuable compounds in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries, as well as the developing industrial biotechnology field. To date, two Microbia-engineered production strains have been introduced into commercial use and a third Microbia-engineered strain is currently undergoing pilot evaluation.