Feb 24 2011
Novel compounds called polyketides derived from soil bacteria hold great promise in areas ranging from clinical medicine to biofuels.
Now, a new license agreement of the technology, originally developed using funding from BBSRC, brings impact in the field of renewable fuels a step closer.
Biotica Technology Ltd., co-founded by Professor Peter Leadlay of the University of Cambridge, has signed a non-exclusive deal with Amyris, an integrated renewable products company, that will see Amyris use its polyketide engineering technology within its operations.
Polyketides are a large class of secondary metabolites found in bacteria, fungi, plants and the technology used to develop them, which was developed by a BBSRC-funded breakthrough in understanding how soil bacteria synthesise the compounds using polyketide synthases, has applications in drug discovery as well as chemical synthesis.
All of Biotica's projects employ its proprietary novoPT™ technology that continues to be developed using BBSRC Industrial CASE studentships, which enables selection from the many known polyketides with biological activity to make a range of compounds that are either difficult or impossible to make by coventional methods.