Iogen is well known in Canada as that nations largest player in the biofuels industry. The company, established in the 1970's, is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It has grown from being an industrial manufacturer of enzyme products, to a global leader in cellulosic ethanol technologies. Iogen's latest success story has been the incorporation of cellulosic ethanol in fuel sold at an Ottawa Shell station. In June 2009, Iogen announced that a project was underway in which straw-based ethanol would be used in gasoline sold commercially for a trial period, in what was believed to be the first use of straw-based biofuel.
Other common sources of bioethanol used in the Americas, are corn and sugarcane, but public acceptance of these fuelstocks has been divided. Iogen and other biofuel developers, like Novozymes and Genencor, anticipate greater acceptance of cellulosic technology, since straw, or other grasses with comparible qualities, are not sources of food and may be grown on lands that are unsuitable for other uses.
Iogen is a multi-faceted environmental biotechnology company. Besides biofuels, the company focuses on three other niches, producing enzymes for the pulp and paper, textiles, and animal feed industries. Its pulp bleaching and processing enzymes minimize the need for chlorinated chemicals, while enzymes for the textile industry provide a green biotech solution for processing and softening fabrics.
Many of the enzymes used by Iogen are derived from fungi or yeast, and the company is very involved in research for the development of new fermentation processes using GMOs. In order to do so, it must investigate the nature of protein interactions, and control of biological processes, in cells (Sobko, 2006). Fungal and yeast genome sequencing projects worldwide have improved our knowledge of biodegradation and regulatory processes, such as transcription, in these organisms in the past decade, accelerating the growth of companies like Iogen, whose focus is on producing industrial enzymes and/or biofuels research.
The success story that is Iogen is still a privately owned company, unfortunately for anyone looking to invest in biotech stocks. The company website claims that, although they have many offers for research collaborations, few are actually in line with their own projects. They have several very high profile collaborators (Royal Dutch Shell, Petro Canada and DSM (formally Roche Vitamins) to name a few, and are choosey about who they work with. Word also is, for those choosing careers in biotech, that getting a job at Iogen is very tough and a highly competitive process.
Source:
Sobko, A. 2006. Systems Biology of AGC Kinases in Fungi. Science Signalling Online, Sci. STKE 12 September 2006. 2006(352):re9. DOI: 10.1126/stke.3522006re9
