Berlin Biotech Firm Searches for the Key to Life

Man has always aspired to understand the nature of life. One Berlin-area biotech company is working to crack the code of life – at least in plants – through a technique called metabolic profiling. Plants are nearly perfect biological factories: efficient, sustainable and non-polluting.

A company called Metanomics AG is asking the question: Is it possible to improve both yield and quality of plant products through the targeted manipulation of a small number of genes?

What is clear is that the production power of plants to produce chemical products for food, drugs and other uses is enormous. So is the potential for "designer crops".

Metanomics AG is a three-year-old company with about 85 employees that is a joint venture between the giant BASF AG and a group of scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology.

The aim is to analyze the function of plant genomes, that is, to identify plant genes that control specific biological functions. Using specially designed lab space, a large state-of-the-art greenhouse, an ultra-precise plant growth chamber and nearly $15 million in computer hardware, Metanomics is leading the pack in plant molecular research as it compiles a library about the intricate molecular interactions that occur within plants.

By next year, company executives believe it will have created the largest genetic library of plant DNA in the world. Plant biotechnology is a young science for incorporating genes into plant genomes in order to improve the properties of crop plants.

For example, resistance to pests can be improved or crop yields increased. Plant biotechnology can be regarded as a refinement of classical plant breeding. For centuries, this practice has improved plants by crossing and selection, and will continue to do so in the future.

The new operation will strengthen BASF's position as one of the largest suppliers to farmers and the agricultural industry. With mineral fertilizers, modern crop protection agents and products for animal nutrition, BASF will be able to meet farmers’ needs regarding integrated crop production.

Research results from plant biotechnology will also provide new solutions to challenges in nutrition. "We want to optimize plants and increase their nutritional value", says Dr. Dieter Suter, President of BASF’s Fine Chemicals Division. "Projects like this will help us to supply improved food and animal feed."

Metanomics CEO Dr. Arno Krotzky says that metabolic profiling or functional genotics analysis allows for the measurement of plant products and comparisons of plant behavior after genes in the plant that have been switched on or off.

This process has been compared to having a Rosetta stone for the understanding of genomics. Company scientists have found that the technology they are using to analyze plant genes can also be applied to the study of human genetics. What they have found is that computers can measure genetic variability with all of the plant’s 25,000 genes and that new compound can be developed based on how the genes are manipulated.

Dr. Krotzky selected the Biotechnology Park Charlottenburg in an industrial suburb of Berlin as the location for Metanomics AG because of a number of factors.

"Berlin is a magnate," he says. Berlin offers a world class quality of life, subsidy programs for new companies and it has already developed a cluster of other biotech companies that creates important information networks. In addition, rents are cheaper in Berlin than in Munich or at many other biotech centers in Germany.

Government approvals can be attained quickly in the region and there are generous government financial incentives available to encourage small startup companies to locate and grow in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. One thing is certain. Metanomics AG is a company to watch. For further information, see www.metanomics.de.—