Call it the strange tale of the highly hyped malaria-fighting microbe that still hasn’t reached the market, a UC Berkeley “bioengineer,” a non-profit with a Vice President for Commercial Planning & Strategy, a billionaire who years to prove his heart is just as gold as his stock portfolio, and yet one more corporate push to turn plants into fuel.
The goal of the project is to use genetically engineered microbes as cheap factories for the low-cost production of artemisinin, a costly anti-malarial drug, making treatment accessible to the huge numbers of Third World folk stricken by the parasite that causes the disease.
Since the project was launched with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation six years ago, we’ve yet to see any of the compound reach the market, but we have witnessed an interesting shift in focus of the company started by a UC Berkeley scientist to produce the chemical.
Here at esnl is the evolution of the descriptions of Amyris Biotechnologies given in the press releases from the Institute for OneWorld Health [iOWH], which describes itself as “a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, CA, focused on fulfilling the promise of medicines to those who need it the most.”
Jay Keasling, pitching the joys of BP agrofuel to UC Berkeley faculty, 2007
Amyris was founded by Jay Keasling, a UC Berkeley “bioengineer” who played a key role in the university’s capture of the $500 million BP grant funding research in development of plants and microbes to fuel the world’s planes, trains, and automobiles after the peak oil decline leaves the world starving for alternatives to petrochemicals.
A tale of three press releases
The first iOWH press release [14 December 2004] announcing a $42.6 million grant from the Gates’ foundation to fund the GMO artemisin project offered this description of Berkeley bioentrepreneur Jay Keasling’s company:
Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc. uses synthetic biology to produce complex natural chemicals important to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. Using engineered microbes and high-throughput gene discovery, Amyris gains access to promising new drugs that have not been developed because of supply limitations. Amyris employs a variety of new biosynthetic pathways engineered in microbes to produce a range of high-value molecules in large scale at low cost.
The second press release, issued by iOWH on 3 March 2008 announced of the first Gates grant gave this description of Amyris, noting its backing by some of the biggest, richest players in the GMO biotech field:
Amyris (www.amyris.com) is applying its proprietary, breakthrough technology to address major global health and energy challenges. Amyris’ technology is used to produce high-value compounds to enable the production of lower cost artemisinin-based anti-malarial drugs and a slate of renewable hydrocarbon biofuels which are expected to be cost-effective and compatible with existing engines and distribution infrastructure. Based in Emeryville, CA, Amyris is a privately-held venture backed company whose investors include DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and TPG Ventures.
Note that fuel production is now listed just after the antimalarial drug. Of special interest here at esnl is Kleiner Perkins, one of the biggest players in
the “green technology” field. Their entry into the Amyris venture gives the company some powerful political connections, since one of the outfit’s partners, a guy who joined the firm a year before this announcement is good ol’ boy Al Gore, who stands to make megabucks to go along with that Nobel Prize. Gore joined the firm about the same time as another familiar name, the guy who had a lot to do with oil wars, Colin Powell.
Here’s the description of Amyris from the 7 July press release announcing the latest Gates grant [$10.6 million to fund “to prepare for large-scale production and commercialization”] on 7 July. Note that the emphasis has shifted again, with artemisinin not even mentioned, only “renewable chemicals.” The focus has shifted entirely to fuels:
Amyris is building an integrated renewable products company to apply industrial synthetic biology to genetically modify microorganisms, primarily yeast, to serve as living factories. These modified yeast strains convert plant-source sugars into potentially thousands of molecules, providing a broad range of renewable chemicals and transportation fuels. Amyris Brasil S.A., a subsidiary of Amyris, oversees the establishment and expansion of Amyris’s production in Brazil. In addition, Amyris is building fuels distribution capabilities in the United States through its subsidiary, Amyris Fuels, LLC. More information about Amyris and its subsidiaries is available at http://www.amyris.com or http://www.amyrisbrasil.com
Meanwhile, Keasling had become head of another campus research lab, a potential rival to the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute. Both are headquartered in the same new office building in nearby Emeryville, with Keasling’s corporate entity located on the ground floor and his federally funded Joint BioEnergy Institute on the fourth floor, just a short elevator rise away.
And, as posted here Monday, Keasling’s corporate venture — incorporating the same technology bankrolled by Gates to develop the drug — has just announced an initial public stock offering which stands to make a lot of money for Keasling, Gore’s outfit, and all those other bioentrepreneurs.
And the Gates foundation, as noted here earlier, has become a major investor in Monsanto, the same outfit that owns the world’s largest collection of germ plasm from the plant deemed most likely to yield all those agrofuel billions.
Trillions of dollars at stake?
John Doerr, bullish on Amyris
We had the chance to catch a talk by John Doerr, key player at Kleiner Perkins, back on 7 March 2008 when we were reporting for the Berkeley Daily Planet. Here’s what he said about Keasling and the stakes in the green energy game:
“I’m a glorified recruiter,” he said. “The best thing I can do is find super-scientists at UC Berkeley working in synthetic biology under Jay Keasling,” then build a company to take the technology to market, while “making a great deal of money at the same time.”
Doerr’s firm, KPCB, has helped build some of the best known of the nation’s new companies, including Amazon.com, Google, Palm, Genentech and Sun Microsystems. Gore joined the team last November. Earlier this month the company also announced a $100 million iFund to bankroll technology related to the iPhone and iPod.
To build up a company like Amyris, Doerr said, may take an investment of $250 million, but the potential earnings of new energy companies could dwarf Internet giants, he said, with the value of the new generation of energy giants potentially ranking in the trillions of dollars compared to the billions of leading online firms.
He said climate change is KPCB’s biggest-ever challenge, with investments to date of $300 million for the college and university endowment funds who invest with the company.
Green tech is “the mother of all markets,” he said, and “going green should be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”
Gee, could all that hot air be inflating something? Something like another colossal investment bubble maybe? Meanwhile, the world has yet to see dose one of that Gates-bankrolled artemisinin.
Kinda makes ya want to sing, doesn’t it?
eats shoots 'n leaves 