DuPont Teams with Microbia for Biomanufacturing

A collaborative research and development program between Microbia, Inc. and DuPont Central Research & Development seeks to develop an economically viable process for a chemical currently manufactured from petrochemicalbased raw material.

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

Richard Bailey, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of Microbia's Precision Engineering business, says, "Not only does this collaboration provide further validation of our technology but it also aligns Microbia with a worldwide leader in the increasingly important area of green chemistry."