Gevo Awarded Two Key Patents for Efficient Production of Isobutanol
September 13 2011 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO), a renewable chemicals and advanced
biofuels company, today received two patents from the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) on important technologies
that enable the low-cost, high-yield production of biobased
isobutanol. The Company also filed a lawsuit against Butamax™ and
its affiliate DuPont. The lawsuit charges that Butamax and Dupont
infringe Gevo’s two newly-issued patents.
Gevo was awarded U.S. Patent No. 8,017,375, “Yeast Organism
Producing Isobutanol at a High Yield” (“PDC Patent”), and U.S.
Patent No. 8,017,376, “Methods of Increasing Dihydroxy Acid
Dehydratase Activity to Improve Production of Fuels, Chemicals, and
Amino Acids” (“AFT Patent”).
Gevo’s PDC Patent focuses on converting an ethanol producing
yeast into an isobutanol producing one. This significant discovery
virtually eliminates ethanol production in yeast and enables Gevo’s
yeast to survive and thrive by producing isobutanol at high yields.
The AFT Patent covers one of the key enzymatic steps in Gevo’s
unique intracellular pathway for producing isobutanol in yeast.
“In layman’s terms, these inventions, and others addressed in
Gevo’s pending patent applications, help to turn an industrial
yeast strain into a highly efficient cell factory to produce
isobutanol,” said Brett Lund, EVP & General Counsel of Gevo.
“We used synthetic biology to reprogram the yeast to make
isobutanol instead of ethanol. In other words, we changed the yeast
so that it makes what we want instead of what it wants, and we made
it so it does it really well.”
In combination, the inventions described in these two patents
are part of Gevo’s unique technology to produce isobutanol. The
patents grant to Gevo the right to exclude others from using this
technology in the U.S. for their own purposes without Gevo’s
consent.
“Our lawsuit is based on Butamax’s own publications describing
their use of the technology that Gevo invented first and for which
we have received patents,” said Mr. Lund. “We expect the breadth
and strength of our patent estate to grow considerably over the
coming months as our patent applications convert into granted
patents.”
About Gevo
Gevo is converting existing ethanol plants into biorefineries to
make renewable building block products for the chemical and fuel
industries. The Company plans to convert renewable raw materials
into isobutanol and renewable hydrocarbons that can be directly
integrated on a “drop in” basis into existing chemical and fuel
products to deliver environmental and economic benefits. Gevo is
committed to a sustainable biobased economy that meets society’s
needs for plentiful food and clean air and water. For more
information, visit www.gevo.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements relate to
a variety of matters, including but not limited to the strength of
the Company’s intellectual property position, the conversion of the
Company’s pending patent applications into granted patents and
other statements that are not purely statements of historical fact.
These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the
current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of
Gevo and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty.
Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such
forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date they are made, and the company undertakes
no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in
these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements
involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results
to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these
forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those
expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks
relating to the business of Gevo in general, see the risk
disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year
ended December 31, 2010, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q
and 8-K and other filings made with the SEC by Gevo.
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