AquaBounty Technologies

AquaBounty Technologies Inc.
Industry Biotechnology
aquaculture
Founded 1991[1]
Headquarters Waltham, Massachusetts [1]
Key people
 Ronald L. Stotish (President & CEO)
Website aquabounty.com

AquaBounty Technologies is a biotechnology company, engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of products that aim to increase the productivity of aquaculture.[2]

Products

The company has developed hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia designed to grow faster than traditional fish.

Their hybrid Atlantic salmon incorporates a gene from a Chinook salmon, which bears a single copy of the stably integrated α-form of the opAFP-GHc2 gene construct at the α-locus in the EO-1α line (Ocean Pout AKA Eel).[3] AquaBounty has patented and trademarked this fish as the AquAdvantage salmon, a sterile Atlantic salmon female that can grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon.[4]

The company also produces antifreeze proteins; and conducts research and development programs related to the commercialization of cryo preservatives and the antifreeze gene constructs.[2]

Finances

In 2012, a New York Times article reported the finances of AquaBounty were not in good shape and the company had to reduce staff from 27 to 12.[5] In March 2012, AquaBounty raised US$2 million in new capital, but this would only last until the end of the year.[5]

Georgian investor Kakha Bendukidze owned 47.6% of the company's stock before selling to American synthetic biology firm Intrexon in October 2012. Intrexon put up $500,000 in bridge financing and offered to buy the rest of the company.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Company & History". Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "AquaBounty Technologies Company Overview". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  3. ↑ Staveley, Jane P. (25 August 2010). "Environmental Assessment for AquAdvantage Salmon" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  4. ↑ Timothy Egan (17 March 2011). "The Problem with Genetically Engineered Salmon". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pollack, Andrew (21 May 2012) An Entrepreneur Bankrolls a Genetically Engineered Salmon. The New York Times, Retrieved 3 October 2012
  6. ↑ Pollack, Andrew (December 21, 2012). "Engineered Fish Moves a Step Closer to Approval". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Delays put question mark over GM salmon as development company receives bid". Fishupdate.com. December 10, 2012.