John G. Melo |
| Position: | Cheif Executive Officer |
| Institution: | Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc. |
| Street: | 5980 Horton Street, Ste. 450 |
| City: | Emeryville |
| Zip: | Emeryville, CA 94608 |
| Country: | USA |
| Phone: | (510) 450-0761 |
| Website: | http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/overview.html |
| Activities: | Production |
| Description: | Amyris is currently focused on two major projects:
1) The production of the drug artemisinin to fight malaria in developing countries;
2) The production of renewable biofuels to help reduce global warming.
Amyris is using synthetic biology techniques to build biological solutions to important gobal problems. We focus on creating new metabolic pathways in microbes, essentially re-programming them to function as living factories for the environmentally-friendly production of high-value chemicals. Our first project converts a microbe known for its ability to make copious amounts of alcohol, such as yeast, into a chemical factory for a proven anti-malarial drug. Our second project is the development of a fermentation process that uses custom-designed microbes to renewably produce second-generation, high-performance biofuels that are cost-effective and compatible with current automotive and distribution technologies. |
| Comments: | Amyris Biotechnologies is leveraging breakthroughs in synthetic biology to provide a consistent, cost-effective supply of high-value natural compounds for large and diverse markets, including pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, nutraceuticals, vitamins, and flavors. Applying advances in molecular biology.
Foundes by Prof. Jay Keasling of University of California, Berkeley; CEO John G. Melo He was previously president of U.S. Fuels Operations for British Petroleum; Vice President of Research is Dr. Jack D. Newman |
| Relevance for SynBio : high |