Microbia Inc announced advances in its ability to improve the properties of microbial cells for biomanufacturing pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. In a report published in the February 2003 issue of Nature Biotechnology, Microbia scientists describe a new method for rapidly identifying genes required for the production of industrial molecules produced in microbes. This technology enables the illumination of the best route to optimize a cell's metabolic potential to increase productivity and yield of drugs and chemicals manufactured at industrial scale.

"Microbia uses a systems approach to engineer the microbial circuitry that regulates metabolite production," said Richard Bailey, Microbia's Senior Director for Biomanufacturing Business Development. "The data published today illustrate how we develop the roadmap for these regulatory networks. Once we have pinpointed the key genes to be modulated, such as those contributing to high productivity, we can selectively alter them to boost yields and improve other production parameters."

The Nature Biotechnology authors constructed genomic fragment microarrays for Aspergillus terreus and then utilized these arrays for transcriptional profiling of strains engineered to produce varying levels of lovastatin-a drug used widely to treat high cholesterol. By integrating transcriptional and metabolite data, the authors elucidated the key genetic components and critical regulatory nodes affecting lovastatin production.

The technology described in the Nature Biotechnology paper is a component of the Company's Precision Engineering approach to biomanufacturing process improvement. Precision Engineering provides a rapid and comprehensive alternative to traditional metabolic engineering methods by targeting the physiological control networks in fungal and bacterial cells.