Plastid AS is established at the Incubator/Rogaland Science Park, but the product development takes place in green surroundings in a laboratory at UiS. The plants are not there for enjoyment only, but cultivated to support lifesaving biotechnology.
Proteins in plant cells
The approach is to produce great quantities of plastids or mini cells in the plants. There are millions of these cells in each plant and they will function as efficient bio factories. The proteins will be used by research laboratories, the health service, the feed and fish industries and the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition to standard proteins Plastid will also design and produce new proteins and enzymes in demand by the market. Today Plastid has four researchers and an administration.
The production of proteins in plastids has until now been difficult, partly because it is a complicated process to put a gene into a plastid and then make a plant grow from this single plant cell.
By applying our procedures we get the right plant after two to three months. The aim is to shorten the process to one to two months. When we have the plant which produces the protein demanded by the customer, we can simply expand – we will just grow more plants. Møller says.
Cancer treatment
Plastid AS can develop products adapted to all illnesses caused by defective proteins. A particularly interesting area is the so-called kinases, proteins which are active in transmission of signals in our body. Defect kinases cause around 400 different serious illnesses from cancer to neurological ailments.
One example is stomach cancer where a special kinase is always switched on. Stomach cancer patients therefore need inhibitors of this kinase. They must be developed continuously since our patients become resistant to inhibitors after a while, Møller explains.
We want to produce kinases in our system which may be used for developing new inhibitors for these patients. We have already managed to produce a kinase, even though this is a process in which success is not easily achieved. It shows that we are able to manage this within our patented system.
Much of the market for proteins is in Europe and Asia and there is also a great demand for kinases in the American market. In Britain the Health Service pays about £1000 a month for inhibitors to a kinase which can cure patients.
There is a large market for new proteins in the industry, but the infrastructure has so far been expensive. Plastid's system is robust and the production can easily be increased or reduced, Møller says.
Product line of their own
He envisages several partnerships, with both research institutions and industry. The company will initially not develop any vaccines on its own, but be a provider of proteins to the pharmaceutical industry. Nevertheless, Plastid AS will develop its own product line.
The company consists of a development division and a production division. Møller is the main shareholder with a portfolio of 45 per cent while UiS has holdings through IRIS Forskningsinvest of 33 per cent. Science Park Development owns 17 per cent and professor Nam-Hai Chua at Rockefeller University in New York five per cent.
It means a lot to me to be able to put years of research to good use for others and show that the University of Stavanger can succeed in applied biotechnology. It is a good feeling when we see the production of protein the first time, says a smiling Møller.
Valuable support
Plastid AS had received financial support from the FORNY and GNBIO programs at the Research Council of Norway, among other things for verification of technology and product development.
Precubator, the Stavanger Region's Technology Transfer Office (TTO), has contributed in the commercialization of Plastid AS.
Without Precubator the company had never become a reality. Precubator has been instrumental from the conception to the establishment of the company.
Anne Cathrin Østebø, manager at Precubator and board member of Plastid, says that the Research Council of Norway has increased its focus on the commercialization of research, and she commends the UiS leadership for facilitating just that.
We have contributed to providing capital for the founding of the company, worked on patent protection and surveyed the market. The company has chosen a sound financial strategy and we look forward to following up the company through active participation, she says.
Text: Thomas Bore Olsen
Photo: Håkon Vold
Lifesaving Bioteque at UiS
By using revolutionary methods the Plastid Company will produce proteins. Professor Simon Geir Møller heads the company which is the first bioteque company at the University of Stavanger.
Health and welfare represents one of six priority areas at the University of Stavanger, and research in this field is being pursued today at several of its departments and faculties.
This work is well established in some departments, with several major projects and PhD students as well as extensive external networks.
At other institutes, activity is more in the early stages. Research teams have been created to contribute to a build-up of expertise, and new research programmes and projects established.
The UiS cooperates with other research institutes involved with health and welfare in its region, including the Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger Health Research, Lærdal/Safer and the International Research Institute of Stavanger (Iris).
UiS academic staff involved in this work belong to national and international research networks. Through in-house expertise and good networking, the UiS will play an active role in relation to the European Union’s seventh framework programme on health.
Contact: Sverre Nesvåg
