Post by L Roebuck on May 25, 2006 9:46:43 GMT -5
Marengo cave crops aren't your garden-variety
By Rick Callahan
Associated Press
MARENGO, Ind. — In a cavelike chamber carved deep into a Southern Indiana cliff, Doug Ausenbaugh is raising corn and tomatoes as vibrant as anything growing in a sun-drenched field.
Regardless of the weather outside -- flood, drought or blizzard -- crops thrive in the blindingly bright growth chambers Controlled Pharming Ventures LLC has installed 160 feet below ground in a vast maze carved from limestone.
Ausenbaugh started his company in 2003 with the dream of tapping into the emerging field of crops genetically modified to produce drugs or vaccines.
Because pollen from altered plants can mix with other crops or native plants -- with unknown results -- Controlled Pharming would instead grow those crops in underground chambers equipped with filtration to remove that pollen.
So far, the so-called "pharming" industry remains largely in clinical trials, and Ausenbaugh has shifted his focus to testing new crops under the precise conditions each needs.
Instead of waiting months for a specific planting window to test, for example, a newly developed crop bred for drought tolerance, a seed company could instead arrange for Controlled Pharming to grow it in droughtlike conditions -- any time of the year -- to speed research.
"How much is a year of development time worth?" Ausenbaugh asked. "If we can help a company save a year in the development of a product that's got a 20-year proprietary or patentable life, that could be measured in tens or even in hundreds of millions of dollars."
Controlled Pharming's work takes place in the Marengo Warehouse & Distribution Center about 35 miles northwest of Louisville.
The 60-acre complex has nearly 4 million square feet of storage space, and tenants include the U.S. military, which stores thousands of meals ready to eat (MREs) and tire companies, which have found its stable temperature -- about 58 degrees year-round -- ideal for keeping tires supple.
Controlled Pharming has built two growth chambers with lighting, rich soil and a drip system that provides plants with water and nutrients.
That system has raised Bt corn -- a field corn resistant to the European corn borer by the insertion of genes from common soil bacteria -- with an average yield of 337 bushels per acre.
That's far above the nation's average for field-grown corn of 142 bushels per acre and better than greenhouse-grown corn at Purdue University, which yielded about 267 bushels per acre.
Some of the equipment in Controlled Pharming's buildings arose from research by Purdue scientists, who are working with NASA on growth systems that would allow astronauts to raise crops in space and on the moon and Mars.
Cary Mitchell, a Purdue professor of horticulture, worked with Ausenbaugh to obtain a $2 million grant from the state's 21st Century Fund, which invests in promising high-tech research.
That funding helped refine the technology and methods to grow corn in the chamber, he said.
"Corn is a very complex plant. And to grow it not outdoors under sunlight and summer weather but indoors during the winter in mines is a pretty tricky proposition," Mitchell said.
Part of the solution is regulating light, temperature, carbon dioxide, humidity and air circulation to maximize plant growth.
Sensors that collect real-time information on those variables are linked to a computer system that regulate those factors.
So far, Ausenbaugh has had only one client, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., for which he recently raised 1,300 corn plants for a conference held in Chicago last month by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
He hopes to add more seed companies until the vaccine industry he originally targeted gets off the ground.
That's still a few years away, said Michael J. Phillips, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's vice president for food and agriculture.
But if the new technology pans out, he said, it will give drug companies a new and rapid source of pharmaceuticals that can be used to help cure diseases.
"Instead of taking years to build and certify a new plant, you can just go out and plant more. It will take a matter of months instead of three to five or six years," Phillips said.
The Courier-Journal
By Rick Callahan
Associated Press
MARENGO, Ind. — In a cavelike chamber carved deep into a Southern Indiana cliff, Doug Ausenbaugh is raising corn and tomatoes as vibrant as anything growing in a sun-drenched field.
Regardless of the weather outside -- flood, drought or blizzard -- crops thrive in the blindingly bright growth chambers Controlled Pharming Ventures LLC has installed 160 feet below ground in a vast maze carved from limestone.
Ausenbaugh started his company in 2003 with the dream of tapping into the emerging field of crops genetically modified to produce drugs or vaccines.
Because pollen from altered plants can mix with other crops or native plants -- with unknown results -- Controlled Pharming would instead grow those crops in underground chambers equipped with filtration to remove that pollen.
So far, the so-called "pharming" industry remains largely in clinical trials, and Ausenbaugh has shifted his focus to testing new crops under the precise conditions each needs.
Instead of waiting months for a specific planting window to test, for example, a newly developed crop bred for drought tolerance, a seed company could instead arrange for Controlled Pharming to grow it in droughtlike conditions -- any time of the year -- to speed research.
"How much is a year of development time worth?" Ausenbaugh asked. "If we can help a company save a year in the development of a product that's got a 20-year proprietary or patentable life, that could be measured in tens or even in hundreds of millions of dollars."
Controlled Pharming's work takes place in the Marengo Warehouse & Distribution Center about 35 miles northwest of Louisville.
The 60-acre complex has nearly 4 million square feet of storage space, and tenants include the U.S. military, which stores thousands of meals ready to eat (MREs) and tire companies, which have found its stable temperature -- about 58 degrees year-round -- ideal for keeping tires supple.
Controlled Pharming has built two growth chambers with lighting, rich soil and a drip system that provides plants with water and nutrients.
That system has raised Bt corn -- a field corn resistant to the European corn borer by the insertion of genes from common soil bacteria -- with an average yield of 337 bushels per acre.
That's far above the nation's average for field-grown corn of 142 bushels per acre and better than greenhouse-grown corn at Purdue University, which yielded about 267 bushels per acre.
Some of the equipment in Controlled Pharming's buildings arose from research by Purdue scientists, who are working with NASA on growth systems that would allow astronauts to raise crops in space and on the moon and Mars.
Cary Mitchell, a Purdue professor of horticulture, worked with Ausenbaugh to obtain a $2 million grant from the state's 21st Century Fund, which invests in promising high-tech research.
That funding helped refine the technology and methods to grow corn in the chamber, he said.
"Corn is a very complex plant. And to grow it not outdoors under sunlight and summer weather but indoors during the winter in mines is a pretty tricky proposition," Mitchell said.
Part of the solution is regulating light, temperature, carbon dioxide, humidity and air circulation to maximize plant growth.
Sensors that collect real-time information on those variables are linked to a computer system that regulate those factors.
So far, Ausenbaugh has had only one client, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., for which he recently raised 1,300 corn plants for a conference held in Chicago last month by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
He hopes to add more seed companies until the vaccine industry he originally targeted gets off the ground.
That's still a few years away, said Michael J. Phillips, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's vice president for food and agriculture.
But if the new technology pans out, he said, it will give drug companies a new and rapid source of pharmaceuticals that can be used to help cure diseases.
"Instead of taking years to build and certify a new plant, you can just go out and plant more. It will take a matter of months instead of three to five or six years," Phillips said.
The Courier-Journal