Targeted Growth, the Seattle-based developer of renewable fuels and high-yield agricultural products, said today that its scientists have found a way to boost the amount of lipid content by 400 percent in cyanobacteria, which it says could increase the oil yield from algae enough to make it competitive on price with conventional petroleum. The company and its collaborators have identified and tested every active gene in cyanobacteria, and added some new genes, to create a strain of algae that produces higher oil yields. Targeted Growth, which was profiled last week in Xconomy, says it has filed multiple patent applications on the high-yield strain of algae.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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