Hayward, California
May 20, 2002

Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, announced today that it was granted a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant will fund research to discover naturally occurring plant genes that regulate the production of natural rubber. The research will focus on doubling the amount of rubber made in the Guayule plant, which grows naturally in the American South West. Guayule produces high quality latex rubber that is suitable for the manufacture of high value, hypoallergenic latex products used in medical devices. This is the third SBIR grant awarded to Mendel.

"This grant makes it possible for Mendel to use its unique expertise in plant regulatory genes to create plant biofactories that produce high margin products such as hypoallergenic latex rubber," said William F. Goure, VP of Commercial Development for Mendel. "Today most rubber is produced in fossil fuel chemical plants or by tropical rubber trees. By changing the level of naturally occurring plant regulatory genes, we are optimistic that we can create improved varieties of Guayule that make twice as much rubber. Since Guayule grows in the United States, these improved varieties will create opportunities for American farmers, reduce our dependence on imported rubber, and decrease our use of synthetic rubber."

Robert A. Creelman, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, will serve as the Principal Investigator of the grant.

Founded in 1997, Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. is a pioneer in the application of functional genomics to the study of plant genes. Mendel's mission is to discover and characterize the function of plant regulatory genes and to develop and commercialize high-value products based on these discoveries. Mendel's products could benefit customers in agriculture, healthcare, specialty ingredient, forestry and horticulture markets. Mendel has partnerships with three of the six largest agriculture companies, including Monsanto, and Savia, the world's largest vegetable company.