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Performance
of 50 Completed ATP Projects
Status
Report - Number 2
NIST SP 950-2
Chapter
3 - Biotechnology
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Thermo
Trilogy Corporation
(original awardee: AgriDyne Technologies, Inc.)
Bioengineering of a Safe,
Organic/Chemical Insecticide
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| Every
year millions of tons of chemical pesticides are sprayed or irrigated
onto plants in fields and gardens throughout the United States. Protected
from weeds and insects, these plants flourish and grow to provide
food and visual delight for us all. Chemicals used for pest control,
however, sometime turn out to be poisonous for humans, and the results
are often tragic. Consequently, efforts are under way to reduce the
need for toxic chemical pesticides and, in the process, to eliminate
the adverse side effects they can bring. |
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COMPOSITE
PERFORMANCE SCORE
(Based on a four star rating.)
No Stars
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Reducing the Risk
of Toxic Pesticides
One promising approach to reducing the hazards of pesticides is to use
genetically engineered organic compounds based on naturally occurring
pesticides that are harmless to humans. The ATP project with AgriDyne
Technologies offered a novel way to do this by taking advantage of large-scale
biochemical production. AgriDyne, founded in Utah in the early 1980s as
Native Plants, was a small company that would have been unable to pursue
this research without the ATP award.
A Nontoxic, Chrysanthemum-Based
Pesticide
The technology AgriDyne developed during its ATP project is based on the
chemistry of pyrethrins, a group of six closely related natural insecticides
derived from pyrethrum, a type of chrysanthemum. Pyrethrins kill insects
on contact, have low toxicity for mammals, degrade shortly after application,
and produce no harmful residues. The only current source for natural pyrethrins
is chrysanthemum from east Africa. But, according to AgriDyne’s proposal
to ATP, supplies were neither stable nor sufficient to meet the worldwide
demand.
Although pyrethrins
can be synthesized in the laboratory, production via traditional chemical
processes is difficult and expensive. AgriDyne’s alternative was
to genetically engineer yeast cells to produce chrysanthemyl alcohol,
a precursor that is then chemically converted to chrysanthemic acid. This,
in turn, can be used to produce commercial quantities of pyrethrin.
Business Upheavals
Stall Technology
AgriDyne achieved most of the technical goals of the project, but production
costs were higher than predicted. The company encountered financial problems
that forced it to close in 1995, just as the project was ending. AgriDyne
apparently did not have enough management resources to handle the challenges
of both developing the technology and commercializing a product. The firm
was acquired by Biosys of Columbia, Md., another biopesticides company,
which decided not to make the investment required to commercialize the
ATP-funded AgriDyne technology.
Biosys, in turn, declared
bankruptcy in 1996. Its assets, including patents, were acquired by Thermo
Trilogy, the second largest biopesticides company in the world. Thermo
Trilogy officials reported having no current plans to commercialize the
ATP-funded technology, since the cost today of procuring chrysanthemyl
from Africa is lower than the expected cost of producing pyrethrin with
the new technology. In addition, they say, detailed knowledge of the scale-up
process for the technology (requirements for physical plant investment,
as well as information on the predictability of a viable, consistent production
yield) was unknown to them and their counterparts at Biosys, and they
found it difficult to assess AgriDyne’s ATP project. Both companies
considered further pursuit of the technology too risky for them.
Gains in Bioengineering
Knowledge
Although no commercial product has yet resulted from the ATP-funded technology,
new bioengineering knowledge has. Some of it has been disclosed through
two patents. But AgriDyne’s manufacturing know-how was apparently
not passed on to the company’s successors. Should events in Africa
decrease the supply or increase the cost of natural pyrethrin, the AgriDyne
approach may be resurrected by funding development of the needed manufacturing
skills.
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Project
Highlights
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PROJECT:
To develop a genetic engineering process for producing pyrethrin,
a natural insecticide from chrysanthemums that is nontoxic to mammals
but was available only from Africa in limited, unstable supplies.
The technology would provide a less-costly, stable domestic source
of supply.
Duration: 6/1/1992 — 5/31/1995
ATP Number: 91-01-0071
FUNDING (in
thousands):
| ATP |
$1,200
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37%
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| Company |
2,012
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63%
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| Total |
$3,212
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
AgriDyne achieved most of its technical goals and received two project-related
patents:
- “Storage
Stable Pesticide Compositions Comprising Azadirachtin and Epoxide”
(No. 5,352,697: filed 7/28/1992,
granted 10/4/1994) and
- “Chrysanthemyl
Diphosphate Synthase, Corresponding Genes and Use in Pyrethrin
Synthesis” (No. 5,443,978: filed 6/25/1993, granted 8/22/1995).
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CITATIONS
BY OTHERS OF PROJECT’S PATENTS: See Figure
3.2.
COMMERCIALIZATION
STATUS:
Commercialization is in progress. MSI Commercialization is uncertain,
owing to the dissolution of AgriDyne, current market conditions
that make the new production approach too costly to compete with
natural sources of supply, and lack of plans, at this writing, by
Thermo Technology (which now owns the intellectual property) to
pursue further development. Scientific knowledge generated by the
ATP project, however, is disclosed in two patents and may be important
to the genetic engineering of other plant extracts. The knowledge
has potential applications in pharmaceuticals and specialized materials
and chemicals, as well as in pesticides.
OUTLOOK:
Commercialization is uncertain, owing to the dissolution of AgriDyne,
current market conditions that make the new production approach
too costly to compete with natural sources of supply, and lack of
plans, at this writing, by Thermo Technology (which now owns the
intellectual property) to pursue further development. Scientific
knowledge generated by the ATP project, however, is disclosed in
two patents and may be important to the genetic engineering of other
plant extracts. The knowledge has potential applications in pharmaceuticals
and specialized materials and chemicals, as well as in pesticides.
Composite
Performance Score:
No Stars
COMPANY:
AgriDyne Technologies, Inc.
(acquired by Biosys, Inc. in 1995; Biosys
assets acquired by Thermo Trilogy in 1996)
Thermo Trilogy Corporation
7500 Grace Drive
Columbia, MD 21044
Contact: Ramon Georgis
Phone: (410) 531-4711
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Return to Table
of Contents or go to next section.
Date created: April
2002
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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