02 08 08   St. Louis Post-Dispatch article by Rachel Melcer

Imagine an oilseed, not part of the food chain, that can produce biodegradable plastic and improve the economics of making biodiesel.

That is the vision of scientists at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Metabolix Inc. and their research partners at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur.

If it pans out, the result could be a green-green, win-win-win for Missouri's economy, Metabolix and the environment, say the partners and state economic development officials.

"It's exactly what the civic leadership in St. Louis has been positioning St. Louis and the state to become," said Rob Monsees, executive director of the Missouri Technology Corporation, which gave a $1.14 million state grant to the project. "Metabolix is hopefully the first of many examples of plant biotechnology companies that are going to be finding their way to Missouri."

Scientists from the company and the Danforth Center are working to genetically modify certain oilseeds to produce plastic polymers as they grow. Once harvested, the crop would be broken down into oil for biodiesel refineries and polymers for the production of bioplastics that break down into environmentally friendly waste.

Bioplastics — plastic derived from plant or microbial sources, rather than petroleum — would provide biodiesel facilities with a valuable co-product that they could sell to offset the cost of producing fuel for autos and trucks.

"This is an opportunity that's potentially very good in terms of the economics," said Oliver Peoples, Metabolix co-founder and chief scientific officer.

Metabolix is a public company that spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and produces biodegradable, corn-based plastics in partnership with Archer Daniels Midland Company. It was drawn to Missouri by the Danforth Center's expertise in genetic engineering and oilseed plants, Peoples said.

The company will open a local research center with at least four full-time scientists; it is considering space at the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise incubator, located across Olive Boulevard from the Danforth Center. The Metabolix team will work with three of the Danforth Center's labs, which are hiring four researchers and supporting the project through the state grant.

The Danforth Center "could really help us get this off to a good start fairly quickly," Peoples said. And Metabolix is focused on results, with a goal of proving the concept can work within a year or two and starting a pilot plant in 2011.

"We're not in the business of selling science," Peoples said. "We're driven by developing and really promoting the construction of manufacturing facilities to deliver products to the marketplace."

Metabolix and Archer Daniels Midland, through a joint venture called Telles, are building a commercial-scale plant in Clinton, Iowa, to produce Mirel-brand bioplastic by using fermentation technology and corn sugar. It is expected to open this year and annually churn out 100 million pounds of bioplastic for such things as injection-molded items, garbage bags, and gardening. Mirel, currently produced in a small-scale pilot plant, is used in Target store gift cards.

The Mirel process requires the construction of costly fermentation plants, and depends on a crop — corn — that already is in high demand for food, ethanol, and animal feed. So, Metabolix is turning to a new approach that would create a dedicated industrial crop solely for bioplastic and biofuel production.

Tapping Danforth

This second-generation approach involves engineering oilseeds to produce polymers that would be extracted, purified and possibly blended to create commercial-grade bioplastics. But Metabolix's expertise is in microbial systems and fermentation — it needs the Danforth Center's experts to work in oilseed plants, Peoples said.

The collaboration "really speaks to the fact that the Danforth Center has grown up and developed in ways that the science is relevant to the translation of basic research" into commercial products, said its president, Roger Beachy. "That's the mission ... that we laid out years ago."

Metabolix will work with three of the center's principal investigators: Jan Jaworski and Edgar Cahoon, who are oilseed experts; and Joseph Jez, a biochemist who studies the function and structure of plants.

Together, they will determine how much plastic polymer a plant can produce while still remaining viable — that is, able to grow and produce seeds.

"There's very, very limited research that's been done in this area, (so) we don't know. And as a research scientist, that's what makes it interesting," Jaworski said.

The team will work with camelina, also known as false flax, and brassica juncea, an Asiatic mustard. Neither one is grown in Missouri, so working with them here won't spark concerns about industrial plants accidentally cross-pollinating with others, Jaworski said.

Such concerns scuttled the state's last high-profile attempt to attract a company that uses plants as factories for nonfood material.

Ventria Bioscience, a California company, had hoped to grow and process in Missouri rice genetically engineered to produce proteins for treating diarrhea in children.

But those plans were abandoned because farmers and Anheuser-Busch Companies, the nation's largest buyer of rice, worried the pharmaceutical variety would contaminate their grain.

Dedicated to R&D

"We need to recognize that we lost an opportunity when we lost Ventria, but we have gone on," said Beachy, who also chairs Governor Matt Blunt's Advisory Council for Plant Biotechnology.

Missouri's financial support for the Metabolix project "says the state is dedicated to this area of research and product development."

And attracting Metabolix shows that Missouri has the science and technology to compete with other states, he said.

It also has plans for Metabolix beyond the Danforth Center partnership, according to Monsees.

The University of Missouri has plant breeders and experimental growing stations that can conduct field trials of its bioplastic-producing plants, he said. The state also is spending $5 million to help build a plant science center in Mexico, Missouri, that could be used to extract and purify the material. And Missouri is chock full of farmers who might benefit from growing the crop, which would fetch a higher price than common commodities.

"The opportunity really is statewide," said Monsees, the Missouri Technology Corporation executive director.

On a broader scale, the technology's potential to benefit biodiesel production fits with the region's goal of becoming a nationally important hub for biofuels.

Missouri's location in the agricultural heartland also fits with the Metabolix goal of quickly getting to market. The company hopes to take advantage of existing biodiesel infrastructure that is accustomed to converting a crop for industrial use, Peoples said.

"It's going to take us a while to get to a commercial phase," he said. But "Metabolix is a company that really prides itself in looking to work with the best and brightest ... in a very productive and open way, to see what we can accomplish."

Metabolix

Business: Uses biotechnology to develop sustainable, plant-based methods for producing plastics, fuels, and chemicals
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Stock exchange/ ticker: Nasdaq/MBLX
Revenue: $795,000 in nine months ended September 30
Net loss: $20.6 million in nine months ended September 30
Chief executive: Jay Kouba
Founded: 1992

Published in the Business section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Friday, February 8, 2008.
© 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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