Photosynthetic Harvest, Inc. (PHI) is now using its proprietary Rhizosecretion(TM) technology to "milk" green plants for a variety of human and microbial proteins. The Rhizosecretion(TM) process, developed by Professor Ilya Raskin Ph.D. at Rutgers University, and exclusively licensed to PHI, takes advantage of the ability of green plants, grown in water (hydroponically), to synthesize and secrete large quantities of bioactive compounds from their roots. Using genetic material from humans, jellyfish, and microbes, PHI is engineering the roots of plants to continuously produce and exude large quantities of recombinant proteins into a hydroponic medium.

Recombinant proteins are widely used as pharmaceuticals and as industrial and food processing enzymes. While the need for recombinant proteins is increasing each year, the growth of the market is limited due to the relatively high costs of protein manufacture using conventional microbial and animal cell culture systems. Protein manufacture using PHI's Rhizosecretion(TM) process offers a low cost, large-scale recombinant protein production system with simplified downstream processing.

"This is an extremely exciting landmark for PHI, as well as further validation of the use of the Rhizosecretion(TM) technology as a key enabling technology of 21st century biomanufacturing," says Ira Pastor, Director of Business Development for PHI. "We are optimizing a `molecular farming' system, which is able to continuously secrete recombinant proteins, without the need to destroy the actual plant material, as is the case with other transgenic plant protein production systems. We are also developing methods for increasing protein yield during the scale-up production process, such that the protein secreting plants can be indefinitely propagated from seeds or cuttings at a very low cost. We are now initiating collaborations with industrial partners to jointly proceed with further development of the technology for a wide range of commercial applications."

PHI is a privately held biotechnology firm with headquarters located in Willingboro, NJ. In addition to research into recombinant protein biomanufacturing, PHI has developed a broad range of integrated life science biotechnologies for applications such as pharmaceutical and agrichemical
discovery, gene amplification for crop engineering, bioactive peptide development, and production of scientifically optimized nutraceuticals.

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