Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley biotech startup earns prestigious R & D 100 Award
Thursday July 12, 2007
Phenotype Screening Corporation, a three-person Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley biotech startup, has won an internationally prestigious “R & D 100” award...
Knoxville, Tenn. – Phenotype Screening Corporation, a three-person Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley biotech startup, has won an internationally prestigious “R & D 100” award for its groundbreaking work in crop and tree diagnostics. Their work helps scientists improve yields in a wide range of crops, including biomass for alternative fuel production.
Called the “Oscars of Innovation” by the Chicago Tribune, the research and development awards go to the top 100 most technologically significant products new to the marketplace each year.
Phenotype Screening’s non-invasive methods of studying plant root systems enable scientists to develop stronger, more pest- and drought-resistant crops. The new techniques can also help improve production of switchgrass, willows, poplars and other plants used as feedstock in biofuels.
The company uses a proprietary substrate, or soil, and special plant containers that allow low energy spectrum X-ray imaging of plant root systems at various stages of development. That could have major implications for food production and greater energy independence through alternative fuel production.
Innovation Valley researchers have won numerous R & D 100 Awards over the years. But usually, the awards go to large research institutes such as nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This year, for example, six individual projects at ORNL won the award. That puts ORNL in the lead of all Department of Energy (DOE) labs with 134 R & D 100 awards.
Phenotype Screening, like many Innovation Valley high-tech companies, is part of a tightly-knit research community that includes ORNL and the University of Tennessee (UT), which has its flagship campus in Knoxville. UT partners with Battelle to manage the national lab.
“UT and ORNL have been tremendous assets to us,” said Ron Michaels, Phenotype Screening’s technical director. “They have opened up opportunities for our company.”
The 16-county Innovation Valley has become an international hotspot of bioenergy research and bioproduction on several fronts:
- Scientists at ORNL and UT’s Institute for Agriculture have produced ethanol from switchgrass.
- ORNL just won a $125 million Department of Energy project to construct a world-class bioenergy center.
- Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen’s budget plan calls for a total of $61.6 million funding for bioenergy, a commitment he says will "position Tennessee to be a national leader in the production of biomass ethanol and related research."
- Bredesen’s budget includes $8.4 million biofuels pilot production facility on the UT campus, capital equipment for UT/ORNL’s Joint Institute of Biological Sciences and an incentives package to encourage farmers to grow switchgrass.
- At its new $100 million plant in Loudon, in the southwest corner of the Innovation Valley, DuPont, in partnership with Tate & Lyle, converts corn into bio-PDO, a benign liquid used in carpets and clothes. It is one of the world’s largest bioproduction facilities.
- In Wartburg, Tennessee, Northington Energy is now building the Innovation Valley’s first biodiesel plant.
For the Knoxville-News Sentinel coverage of Phenotype Screening, go to:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/aug/20/ut-alums-start-up-earns-national-rampd-award/
CONTACTS:
Clark Miller
East Tennessee Economic Development Agency (ETEDA)
865-777-3959
www.knoxvilleoakridge.org
cmiller@eteda.org
Dan McDonald
Phenotype Screening
865-385-8641
mcdonalddw@phenotypescreening.com
www.phenotypescreening.com
