News and Events > News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (April 29, 2008)

OPX Biotechnologies to Commercialize Univ. of Colorado Biorefining Technology

(BOULDER, Colo.) OPX Biotechnologies, Inc., a Boulder-based company dedicated to enabling renewable fuels and chemicals that are economically and environmentally superior to petroleum-based products, has executed an exclusive license with the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office for the SCALEs microbe optimization technology and other intellectual property focused on the efficient production of biorefined fuels and chemicals.

OPX will use the licensed technology to develop microbial strains for biorefining and next-generation biofuels applications. These strains are involved in the fermentation reactions that are crucial to the processes for making advanced biofuels, ethanol, and biomass-derived chemicals. The SCALEs platform, together with other OPX technologies, can identify the role of each gene and how to modify it to achieve the characteristics needed for specific fuel and chemical products 1000 to 5000 times faster than conventional methods. The SCALEs toolbox will also help produce comprehensive and patentable strategies for engineering essential traits for commercial microbe strains.

“Our technology allows us to look at millions of changes and their effects on commercially important traits such as the production rate and efficiency for making fuels and chemicals. OPX’s technology has the promise to remove a significant barrier to the use of renewable sources of energy as an alternative to petroleum-based product,” said OPX Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder Michael Lynch, MD, PhD, a one-time researcher in Dr. Ryan Gill’s Laboratory at CU-Boulder. OPX is associated with the Gill Lab and is funded by Silicon Valley venture capital firms Mohr Davidow Ventures and X/Seed Capital. Dr. Gill is a co-founder of OPX and serves on the company’s Scientific Advisory Board.

David Allen, Associate Vice President for Technology Transfer at CU, added, “This exciting opportunity brings together advanced stage technology, compelling market drivers, superlative investment partners and a quality team. We believe it is positioned for maximum impact.” In 2006, this technology also received proof-of-concept funding from the CU Technology Transfer Office.

About the Technology Transfer Office
The CU Technology Transfer Office pursues, protects, packages, and licenses to business the intellectual property generated from research at CU. The TTO provides assistance to faculty, staff, and students, as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology. For more information about technology transfer at CU, visit www.cu.edu/techtransfer.

About the University of Colorado
The University of Colorado is a three-campus system with campuses in Boulder and Colorado Springs, and a Denver campus located in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. CU is a premier teaching and research university, ranked sixth among public institutions in federal research expenditures by the National Science Foundation. Academic prestige is marked by CU’s four Nobel laureates, seven Mac Arthur “genius” Fellows, 18 astronauts, 19 Rhodes Scholars and CU-Boulder’s ranking of 11th best public university in the world by the Institute for Higher Education. For further information, please visit https://www.cu.edu.

About OPX Biotechnologies
OPX's technology is based on the pioneering work of Professor Ryan Gill and Dr. Michael Lynch at the University of Colorado. OPX, using a proprietary set of tools and IP known as SCALEs, that enable massively parallel full genome search, identification of specific causative genes, and rapid genetic modification and testing, can quickly engineer new microbes to provide major improvements in tolerance, productivity, and specificity for fuel and chemicals production using biological processes. The company's mission is to be the world's leading microbe engineering company and to use its technology to vastly decrease the production costs and capital requirements for renewable fuels and chemicals. For more information go to: www.opxbiotechnologies.com.