Companies Exploring GM Algae Production

 Posted by Rachel

D. Glass Associates Inc. is a biotechnology consulting company. The CEO wrote a blog to follow up information obtained at the EUEC 2010 conference (2nd February 2010) and to complement a presentation that he gave.  This blog gives a comprehensive list of companies that are looking into genetically modifying algae (and how) in order to obtain greater oil yield.  The blog, and therefore the list of companies, can be found at:

http://dglassassociates.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/companies-reported-to-be-developing-genetically-modified-algae-for-biofuels/

The presentation that Dr. Glass gave at the EUEC 2010 conference was entitled "Prospects for the use of Genetic Engineering in Biofuel Production" and the slides from the presentation can be accessed here: http://www.slideshare.net/djglass99/david-glass-euec-presentation-02-02-10

The information given in this presentation and in the blog is useful for determining which companies are at a commercial stage in their GM-Algae production (not that many!) and seeing where current research into this is currently at. There is also an interesting slide in the presentation which details business deals involving biofuels.  Relevant ones are:

• Chevron/Solazyme: biodiesel production from algae
• ExxonMobil/Synthetic Genomics: synthetic algal strains for biofuel production
• Royal Dutch Shell/HR Petroleum: marine algae for biofuel

It may be too late in the project to start researching these deals from scratch but at least we have evidence of large multinational comapnies investing huge amounts of money into what we are trying to achieve. Therefore implying that our pitch is not a waste of time/money.