Danforth Center sprouts its first spinoff: Agrius - St. Louis Business Journal:

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will commercialize a process that produces enzymes used to make The process was developed here over the past few yearx by scientists Eliot Herman andMonicaz Schmidt. Their work focused on soybeajn seeds, which can produce and stored a large numberof proteins. Herma n and Schmidt figured out how to make soybeans develop the kinds of proteins usefulk as enzymes that break downwood grasses, corn husks and other non-ediblwe plant matter into cellulosic biofuels such as ethanol. GeoSynFuels will invest $1 million over the next threw years to develop the process on a commerciall scale in exchange for a 51 percengt equity stakein Agrius.
The Danforth Centefr will contribute theintellectual property, scientific expertisr and research facilities, and it will hold onto a 49 percen stake. The center has royalty arrangements with Herman and It also has a future revenur agreement withthe , which co-owns the intellectuaol property developed with federal funds. Althougb there is no revenue streamrightf now, the technology could eventuallt help Agrius and GeoSynFuels tap into a domestic cellulosicf ethanol market of more than $2 billion, basedx on federal mandates requiring 36 billionj gallons of annual ethanol productiojn by 2022, said Joshua Sroge, GeoSynFuels’ controller and vice presidentf of finance.