Playing science's genetic lottery
special report Single-celled animals might be some of the most important figures in high tech.
Microbe-managing Mother Nature: From energy to E. coli, microbe management is big business
Playing science's genetic lottery
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 12, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Years ago, materials chemist Angela Belcher wondered why an abalone's shell and man-made chalk were so different, even though both are made of calcium carbonate.
Her curiosity led to graduate school projects, a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, eventually, her co-founding of Cambrios Technologies which is looking at genetically engineered viruses to find proteins that will interact with metals and inorganic substances. The company is concentrating on a protein that could enable semiconductor makers to inexpensively insert an insulating layer of cobalt--a procedure that some manufacturers are testing and may use to make 32-nanometer chips by 2010.
"This is the way evolution works. You try lots of stuff and see what works," said Mike Knapp, CEO of Mountain View, Calif.-based Cambrios. The company is also working on a protein that could help LCD manufacturers build transparent transistors into their screens. "We wouldn't survive as humans if our proteins didn't manipulate things atom by atom."
The company's work exemplifies a revolutionary notion: In the next decade, single-celled animals might be some of the most important figures in high technology. Driving this trend is a small but growing number of start-ups and researchers that are trying to tap the power of the metabolic pathway--the complex chemical reactions inside a living organism that turn food into energy, body parts and waste products.
Biotech companies and food giants have exploited microbes for years: Brewing
beer is a matter of harnessing microbe digestive processes, after all, and many
modern medicines are based around naturally occurring proteins. But now
scientists are trying to use proteins to enhance electronic devices and are
devising methods to create proteins, such as genetic splicing and
A protein dip for chips
Embedding a cobalt layer in a semiconductor now requires vaporizing, electroplating and scraping away metals. But in a process involving a protein manufactured by Silicon Valley-based Cambrios, a chip would only have to be dipped into two liquid solutions to get a cobalt layer.
The key protein in the process binds with copper at one end and cobalt on the other. Chipmakers might start using the dip method with 32-nanometer manufacturing in four years. "It's a high-value, low-volume soup," said Hash Pakbaz, vice president of development.
"The first incarnation was where the protein was a product," said Jim Swartz, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University. "Now we have entered a phase where the protein isn't the product, but a means to an end."
Swartz and his colleagues have isolated an enzyme that uses sunlight to split water molecules. The enzyme--produced from the gene of one organism, helper proteins from another, and liquid extract from E. coli--could produce hydrogen for home heating systems or cars. The process of generating hydrogen is a natural one, Swartz said, but it does not involve living cells.
He is also conducting research on incorporating a protein found in red blood cells into water filters. "It allows water to go through pretty fast, but it excludes everything else," said Swartz, who recently founded a company called Fundamental Applied Biology to commercialize some of his research.
Other academic institutions are working on similar protein experiments. The University of Texas, for instance, wants to use proteins to lay out tiny arrays on chips.
In some ways, companies and researchers in this emerging field are playing the genetic lottery. They are breeding billions of viruses and other microbes, each with a slightly different genetic makeup. Then they try to determine if any of the proteins coming from any microbe will interact in an interesting way with something else.
Although the vast majority of these microorganisms don't yield usable proteins, it does not take much time to produce millions of genetically distinct viruses. Once an interesting protein is identified, researchers can clone the microbe to produce more or reverse-engineer the protein and reproduce it with standard chemical-industry processes.
E. coli to electronicsSingle-cellers break
into the tech biz.
Hear reporter Michael Kanellos talk about how scientists are using microbes to make natural gas and pesticides.
Jewels of the JungleGary Strobel's search for beneficial endophytes in the world's tropical rain forests is the subject of a documentary.
Outsourcing to Mother Nature: From energy to E. coli, microbe management is big business
Playing science's genetic lottery
Companies and universities around the globe are working on projects that bridge the worlds of microorganisms and technology. Here are some of the more notable initiatives under way:
The bacterial fuel cell
Researchers at Rice University and the University of Southern California have
embarked on a project to harness the power of Shewanella oneidensis, a
microorganism that essentially spits lightning. Rather than consume oxygen to
turn food into energy, Shewanella consumes metals. In five years, the
researchers hope to have a fuel cell that can propel itself.
"You can feed them pretty much what is available," said Andreas Luttge, associate professor of earth sciences and chemistry at Rice. "The goal would be to feed them waste water and produce energy."
Synthetic biology
A company named Amyris Biotechnology has come up with a way to produce
Artemisinin--one of the world's most effective anti-malaria drugs--with
genetically engineered microbes.
Artemisinin is produced naturally by a wormwood plant from mangrove swamps in
Southeast Asia, but providing naturally produced Artemisinin to 70 percent of
Africa's malaria victims would cost about $1 billion, according to
statistics from the World Health Organization.
The company grew out of research conducted by Jay Keasling at the University of California at Berkeley, who believes synthetic biology may help find antidotes for the corrosive toxin sarin, which acts as a nerve gas. Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu believes Keasling's work could also be applicable in energy production.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a $42.5 million grant to help fund further research.
Artificial genomics
In 2003, J. Craig Venter, who first mapped the human genome, sailed around the
globe. It wasn't a pleasure cruise; he and his colleagues aboard the Sorcerer
II collected microbes and identified a plethora of new species.
With his company Synthetic Genomics, Venter believes he can find microorganisms that, with or without genetic modification, emit hydrogen or compounds that could help break down greenhouse gases. Other companies and researchers hope to produce ethanol, now made from cornstarch, from grass or cornstalks, which are richer in energy.
If anything, the oceans are teeming with uncharted, microscopic species. A test voyage of the Sorcerer II in the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda in early 2003 led to the discovery of 1,800 new species and 1.2 million new genes.
It will likely take years to bring many of these inventions to market, but the impact over time could be remarkable, said Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist with Draper, Fisher Jurvetson and an early investor in Synthetic Genomics.
"We always overestimate the immediate impact and underestimate the long-term
ones," Jurvetson said. "The truly revolutionary stuff will take some time to
mature."
E. coli to electronicsSingle-cellers break
into the tech biz.
Hear reporter Michael Kanellos talk about how scientists are using microbes to make natural gas and pesticides.
Jewels of the JungleGary Strobel's search for beneficial endophytes in the world's tropical rain forests is the subject of a documentary.
Microbe-managing Mother Nature: From energy to E. coli, microbe management is big business
Playing science's genetic lottery
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 12, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Years ago, materials chemist Angela Belcher wondered why an abalone's shell and man-made chalk were so different, even though both are made of calcium carbonate.
Her curiosity led to graduate school projects, a professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, eventually, her co-founding of Cambrios Technologies which is looking at genetically engineered viruses to find proteins that will interact with metals and inorganic substances. The company is concentrating on a protein that could enable semiconductor makers to inexpensively insert an insulating layer of cobalt--a procedure that some manufacturers are testing and may use to make 32-nanometer chips by 2010.
"This is the way evolution works. You try lots of stuff and see what works," said Mike Knapp, CEO of Mountain View, Calif.-based Cambrios. The company is also working on a protein that could help LCD manufacturers build transparent transistors into their screens. "We wouldn't survive as humans if our proteins didn't manipulate things atom by atom."
The company's work exemplifies a revolutionary notion: In the next decade, single-celled animals might be some of the most important figures in high technology. Driving this trend is a small but growing number of start-ups and researchers that are trying to tap the power of the metabolic pathway--the complex chemical reactions inside a living organism that turn food into energy, body parts and waste products.
Biotech companies and food giants have exploited microbes for years: Brewing
beer is a matter of harnessing microbe digestive processes, after all, and many
modern medicines are based around naturally occurring proteins. But now
scientists are trying to use proteins to enhance electronic devices and are
devising methods to create proteins, such as genetic splicing and
A protein dip for chips
Embedding a cobalt layer in a semiconductor now requires vaporizing, electroplating and scraping away metals. But in a process involving a protein manufactured by Silicon Valley-based Cambrios, a chip would only have to be dipped into two liquid solutions to get a cobalt layer.
The key protein in the process binds with copper at one end and cobalt on the other. Chipmakers might start using the dip method with 32-nanometer manufacturing in four years. "It's a high-value, low-volume soup," said Hash Pakbaz, vice president of development.
"The first incarnation was where the protein was a product," said Jim Swartz, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University. "Now we have entered a phase where the protein isn't the product, but a means to an end."
Swartz and his colleagues have isolated an enzyme that uses sunlight to split water molecules. The enzyme--produced from the gene of one organism, helper proteins from another, and liquid extract from E. coli--could produce hydrogen for home heating systems or cars. The process of generating hydrogen is a natural one, Swartz said, but it does not involve living cells.
He is also conducting research on incorporating a protein found in red blood cells into water filters. "It allows water to go through pretty fast, but it excludes everything else," said Swartz, who recently founded a company called Fundamental Applied Biology to commercialize some of his research.
Other academic institutions are working on similar protein experiments. The University of Texas, for instance, wants to use proteins to lay out tiny arrays on chips.
In some ways, companies and researchers in this emerging field are playing the genetic lottery. They are breeding billions of viruses and other microbes, each with a slightly different genetic makeup. Then they try to determine if any of the proteins coming from any microbe will interact in an interesting way with something else.
Although the vast majority of these microorganisms don't yield usable proteins, it does not take much time to produce millions of genetically distinct viruses. Once an interesting protein is identified, researchers can clone the microbe to produce more or reverse-engineer the protein and reproduce it with standard chemical-industry processes.
E. coli to electronicsSingle-cellers break
into the tech biz.
Hear reporter Michael Kanellos talk about how scientists are using microbes to make natural gas and pesticides.
Jewels of the JungleGary Strobel's search for beneficial endophytes in the world's tropical rain forests is the subject of a documentary.
Outsourcing to Mother Nature: From energy to E. coli, microbe management is big business
Playing science's genetic lottery
Companies and universities around the globe are working on projects that bridge the worlds of microorganisms and technology. Here are some of the more notable initiatives under way:
The bacterial fuel cell
Researchers at Rice University and the University of Southern California have
embarked on a project to harness the power of Shewanella oneidensis, a
microorganism that essentially spits lightning. Rather than consume oxygen to
turn food into energy, Shewanella consumes metals. In five years, the
researchers hope to have a fuel cell that can propel itself.
"You can feed them pretty much what is available," said Andreas Luttge, associate professor of earth sciences and chemistry at Rice. "The goal would be to feed them waste water and produce energy."
Synthetic biology
A company named Amyris Biotechnology has come up with a way to produce
Artemisinin--one of the world's most effective anti-malaria drugs--with
genetically engineered microbes.
Artemisinin is produced naturally by a wormwood plant from mangrove swamps in
Southeast Asia, but providing naturally produced Artemisinin to 70 percent of
Africa's malaria victims would cost about $1 billion, according to
statistics from the World Health Organization.
The company grew out of research conducted by Jay Keasling at the University of California at Berkeley, who believes synthetic biology may help find antidotes for the corrosive toxin sarin, which acts as a nerve gas. Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu believes Keasling's work could also be applicable in energy production.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave a $42.5 million grant to help fund further research.
Artificial genomics
In 2003, J. Craig Venter, who first mapped the human genome, sailed around the
globe. It wasn't a pleasure cruise; he and his colleagues aboard the Sorcerer
II collected microbes and identified a plethora of new species.
With his company Synthetic Genomics, Venter believes he can find microorganisms that, with or without genetic modification, emit hydrogen or compounds that could help break down greenhouse gases. Other companies and researchers hope to produce ethanol, now made from cornstarch, from grass or cornstalks, which are richer in energy.
If anything, the oceans are teeming with uncharted, microscopic species. A test voyage of the Sorcerer II in the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda in early 2003 led to the discovery of 1,800 new species and 1.2 million new genes.
It will likely take years to bring many of these inventions to market, but the impact over time could be remarkable, said Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist with Draper, Fisher Jurvetson and an early investor in Synthetic Genomics.
"We always overestimate the immediate impact and underestimate the long-term
ones," Jurvetson said. "The truly revolutionary stuff will take some time to
mature."
E. coli to electronicsSingle-cellers break
into the tech biz.
Hear reporter Michael Kanellos talk about how scientists are using microbes to make natural gas and pesticides.
Jewels of the JungleGary Strobel's search for beneficial endophytes in the world's tropical rain forests is the subject of a documentary.