Friday, March 13, 2009

It's Science

Two from sciencedaily.com
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — Superb natural latex from a desert shrub called guayule (why-YOU-lee) makes high-quality gloves, medical devices, and other in-demand natural rubber products.
But guayule may also prove to be an economical, environmentally friendly source of another valuable resource—energy. That's according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Colleen M. McMahan at the agency's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif.
Bioenergy can be made from ground-up guayule stems and branches, left after their white, rubber-rich latex has been removed, McMahan noted. The leftovers—a soft, light brown sawdust-like material called bagasse—provide 8,000 to 9,000 Btu per pound, about the same as charcoal.
McMahan's collaborators include ARS chemist Kevin M. Holtman at the Albany center, who has already made small amounts of ethanol from guayule, and chemical engineer Akwasi Boateng at the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa. Boateng is looking into converting guayule bagasse into bio-oil or synthetic gas.
Guayule offers many biofuel benefits. It isn't a food or feed crop, so using it for energy production won't compete with those uses. Guayule shrubs can be harvested for the first time as early as two years after planting, and are ready to harvest again in about another year and a half.
Guayule's bagasse and latex are available year round. The only other biofuel feedstock available continuously right now is garbage (municipal solid waste).
In addition, guayule thrives in hot, dry ecosystems where many other biofuel crops wouldn't grow well. The hardy shrub requires less fertilizer than other crops currently produced in the desert Southwest. Even though a few herbicides are needed while the plants are getting established, once that happens, there's no need for more—or for chemicals that target harmful insects, fungi, or worms called nematodes.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2009) — University of Illinois plant geneticist Stephen Moose has developed a corn plant with enormous potential for biomass, literally. It yields corn that would make good silage, Moose said, due to a greater number of leaves and larger stalk, which could also make it a good energy crop.
The gene known as Glossy 15 was originally described for its role in giving corn seedlings a waxy coating that acts like a sun screen for the young plant. Without Glossy 15, seedling leaves instead appear shiny and glossy in sunlight. Further studies have shown that the main function of Glossy15 is to slow down shoot maturation. Moose wondered what would happen if they turned up the action of this gene. "What happens is that you get bigger plants, possibly because they're more sensitive to the longer days of summer. We put a corn gene back in the corn and increased its activity. So, it makes the plant slow down and gets much bigger at the end of the season."
The ears of corn have fewer seeds compared to the normal corn plant and could be a good feed for livestock. "Although there is less grain there is more sugar in the stalks, so we know the animal can eat it and they'll probably like it." This type of corn plant may fit the grass-fed beef standard, Moose said.
"The first time I did this, I thought, well, maybe the seeds just didn't get pollinated very well, so I hand pollinated these ears to make sure. I found that just like the shoot, seed development is also slower and they just don't make it all the way to the end with a plump kernel," Moose said.
He explained that the energy to make the seed goes instead into the stalk and leaves. "We had been working with this gene for awhile. We thought there would be more wax on the leaves and there was. But we also got this other benefit, that it's a lot bigger."
Moose tested his hypothesis with other corn lines and the effect was the same. "We essentially can make any corn variety bigger with this gene. And it can be done in one cross and we know exactly which gene does it."
He noted that if you put too much of the Glossy 15 gene in, it slows down the growth too much and the frost kills the plant before it can grow.
One advantage to growing sugar corn for biomass rather than switchgrass or miscanthus is that sugar corn is an annual. Moose said that if it would attract a pest or develop a disease, farmers could rotate a different crop the next year.
Moose said that sugar corn might make a good transition crop.
"We think it might take off as a livestock feed, because it's immediate," Moose said. "This would be most useful for on-farm feeding. So a farmer who has 50 steers, could grow this and use the corn as feed and sell the stalks and sugar. It could be an alternative silage, because it has a longer harvest window than regular silage."
For this sugar corn plant to become commercialized, it would have to get government approval, but Moose said that this is about as safe a gene as you can get. "It's a gene that's already in the corn – all we did was to put an extra copy in that amps it up."
Findings from this research were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

from newsdaily.com
ZURICH, Mar. 12, 2009 (Reuters) — Roche Holding AG has struck a deal with Genentech Inc to acquire all outstanding shares in the U.S. biotech group for $46.8 billion, or $95 a share, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.
General view of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche's general annual shareholders meeting in Basel, March 10, 2009.
After a fierce battle that started last summer, Roche finally clinched the deal to buy the 44 percent of the U.S. biotech group it doesn't already own after Genentech's board recommended shareholders accept the increased cash offer.
Roche had raised its hostile bid to $93 per share from $86.50 last week, which had prompted the restarting of talks between the two companies, Roche Chairman Franz Humer said.
"Roche was not forced to pay above $100, like some had initially called for," said Vontobel analyst Andrew Weiss.
"With this deal Roche secures itself the operating cash flow from Genentech it does not already own, access to Genentech's pipeline beyond 2015 and gains access to Genentech's cash pool of roughly $10 billion," he said.
Roche's share price was down 1.3 percent at 143.60 Swiss francs by 0906 GMT, when the DJ Stoxx European healthcare sector index was up 0.2 percent, having gained in recent days on expectations that the company would get the deal done and hence improve its performance with Genentech fully embedded.
Buying Genentech will give Roche control of all revenues for big-selling cancer drugs Avastin and Herceptin, as well as absorbing an attractive portfolio of new medicines.
The buy-out is the third major deal in the pharmaceutical industry this year, after Pfizer Inc's agreement to buy Wyeth for $68 billion in January and Merck & Co Inc's $41 billion agreed bid for Schering-Plough Corp this week.
Big drugmakers have been seeking to diversify and reduce their reliance on slow-growing traditional prescription medicines, which face patent expiries and falling prices.
The Genentech deal is expected to be accretive to earnings per share in the first year after closing and to generate annual pre-tax synergies of $750-850 million, Roche said
The combined group would be the seventh largest U.S. pharmaceuticals company by market share, with around $17 billion in annual revenue in the United States.
Roche's initial bid was rejected last year, and the Basel-based company turned hostile after several months, during which the financial crisis raised doubts about financing, and Genentech's shares fell below the offer price.
Roche, however, successfully raised $39 billion in the bond market which, together with cash on hand, gave it the financial firepower to get a deal done.
Financing is not an issue following the bonds and Roche may no longer need a syndicated loan, Humer said.
Humer said he did not believe there was a danger of losing Genentech employees -- a risk some analysts have voiced -- adding the deal would give an enormous amount of security to employees of both companies.
The Swiss group will look at ways of retaining key Genentech staff and will consider a new plan to persuade them to stay. It has no plans for job losses in research and early clinical development and expects to keep the sales forces of both companies, but will look at savings in other areas.
Humer is to meet with Genentech chief executive Arthur Levinson as quickly as possible to discuss whether Genentech management stays on.
"The objective is not here to walk in and cut costs, the objective is to make this one of the best companies in the world in health care," he said. "I have a strong conviction that most if not all senior management will stay on."

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