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Bacillus Platform from OmniGene Bioproducts Asset Acquisition July 2008, BioEnergy acquired certain assets of OmniGene Bioproducts, Inc. (OBI) and integrated its renowned team into our Woburn Research Center. OBI brings to BioEnergy exceptional core competencies and proprietary Bacillus host technology and metabolic pathway engineering expertise to develop strains for the fermentative production of commercial products. OBI’s scientists are industry leaders with a broad range of expertise in molecular biology, cell biology, and fermentation technology, with Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Escherichia coli, Streptomyces, and yeast species. The addition of Jan Pero, Rog Yocum, and their world-renowned R&D team, as well as their library of proprietary strains, organisms and plasmids, represents an enormous complement to and expansion of BioEnergy’s existing cutting-edge microbial platform development. OBI’s track record of successfully commercializing products over the years has defined them as a premier industrial bioproducts team with commercial success. Dr. Janice Pero, President of OBI, has over 25 years of experience in research management and is an expert in gene regulation, excelling in the genetic engineering and molecular biology of Bacillus and Streptomyces species. Dr. Pero was an Associate Professor at Harvard University, and a founder of BioTechnica International in 1981, before starting OBI in 1995. Dr. Pero received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University. Dr. Rog Yocum, Senior Program Director at OBI, is an expert in genetic engineering of biochemical pathways in bacteria and yeast, and genetic engineering of industrial yeasts. Dr. Yocum was a founder of BioTechnica International in 1981 and served as a Program Director before joining OBI as a founding member. Dr. Yocum received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University. OmniGene Bioproducts, Inc. has been active in the field of metabolic engineering for more than 12 years, with a focus on producing vitamins and amino acids by fermentation from renewable resources. OBI’s small but highly productive group of scientists has been responsible for the development of food grade bacteria that produce riboflavin (vitamin B2), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), and the amino acid methionine. In all cases, the organisms and processes developed by OBI’s scientists have set records for the highest published titers of their respective products. |