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When asked about genetic modifications to the algae, Algenol CEO Paul Woods shies away from the term. "I wouldn't even say we've modified them — we've enhanced their natural abilities," he says. "We're sensitive to 'genetically modified' because [the term] has so much baggage. We didn't take a gene out of a beetle and stick it into corn — it's all in the same family. It's a subtle difference, but an important one."
Stephen Mayfield, a cell biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, Calif., and a scientific advisor to Sapphire Energy, agrees with this distinction. "There's no such thing as a free lunch," he says. "If you were to look at a precursor of corn, it was a scrawny little grass. Over the last couple of thousand years, it has been domesticated through classical breeding. That's just genetic engineering on a longer time frame. There are no crops we grow that have not been profoundly genetically modified."
If they want to be competitive, most algae fuel companies will introduce some genetic modifications, he adds. "Is there the potential that we could find some wonderful strain out there that produces 30 percent lipid and grows really fast? Sure, but by and large, we don't find that," he says. "Most of those things we make by hard work. All of these algae make naturally what we want – just not when we want them to make it. So we have to learn the basic biology of these things and learn how to make them do it."
Originally Posted: 13 Feb 2009
