Starting at the front end processes for new renewables as feedstocks of the future

The need for additional "new renewables" and the potential contribution of molecular plant genetics to the breeding of new industrial crops producing such novel plant ingredients are being discussed Efforts to add new chemical candidates derived from existing plant based feedstocks have so far met with limited success It therefore seems necessary not only to invest in new derivatization technologies utilizing existing plant-based raw materials, but also to genetically engineer crops capable of producing new renewables Such renewables should be inexpensive, convertible into bulk derivatives and chemical intermediates, and the conversion processes, or at least their early generations, should be compatible with the established infrastructure of the chemical industry Icon Genetics AG is developing 'switchable amplification' production platforms which overcome the problems of limited yield and biotoxicity of recombinant proteins and enzymes made in plants These expression processes, magnICON (TM) and rubICON Seed (TM), are also a promising way for metabolic engineering of new compounds in vegetative plant biomass or in seed Both systems allow for separation of growth/biomass formation and plant propagation, on one side, and product formation, on the other Ingredient synthesis can therefore, at least theoretically, reach its biological maximum Host plant species can be chosen from among non-food crops that have a necessary pool of biochemical precursors for overproduction of the compound of interest.