TeselaGen Biotechnology has received a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand their bioCAD/CAM software suite, which uses synthetic biology approaches to build and modify DNA. The Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant will be used to help commercialize the “j5” technology under exclusive license from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. j5 was developed at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, an LBNL laboratory that develops alternative fuel technologies for the Department of Energy. With this new SBIR Phase II award, TeselaGen has received over one million dollars from the NSF for the development of their synthetic biology platform.
Using TeselaGen’s technology, companies like Genomatica (San Diego, CA) accelerate development of their proprietary organisms. These organisms are an important part of the overall process technology for the production of major chemicals from renewable feedstocks. Companies like Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA) use TeselaGen’s platform for the efficient design of large recombinant molecules for use in their drug therapeutic and diagnostic development efforts, in order to better treat cancer and other chronic disease.
“TeselaGen’s NSF award comes at a time when the synthetic approach to building macromolecules or redesigning biological pathways is accelerating rapidly in industrial, medical and plant biotechnology,” said Mike Fero, CEO, TeselaGen. “We are very excited to be a leader in building valuable software that enables breakthroughs that will cure disease and provide for a more sustainable future.”