1.What major problem or issue is being resolved and how are you resolving it (summarize project aims and objectives)? How serious is the problem? What does it matter?
Prior to the passage of the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 there had been a dearth of private sector and federal government laboratory collaborative research with the concomitant lack of technology transfer from the federal laboratory system to the private sector. Since then the level of cooperation has soared as attested by the number of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) executed over the past eighteen years. A fact frequently forgotten is that the concept of this cooperation was fostered by the proposal of a group of Peoria businessmen for the creation of the Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation (BRDC), a research and development consortium designed to foster private sector/federal laboratory/academic cooperative research. Historically, BRDC has strived to identify promising technology concepts in the ARS and academic laboratories and partner the researchers responsible for these concepts with industrial partners for the purpose of directing the BRDC funded research toward commercialization. To achieve this BRDC has enlisted private sector corporations as equity partners and elicited their capital investment, as well as their knowledge of the market needs and opportunities, to drive early stage research toward commercial goals by funding the research and early development activities. The result has been a very high success rate for translation of federal and academic research into commercial opportunities. BRDC was created to foster technology transfer and has been and will continue to be one hundred percent dedicated to that activity. Its principle focus has always been to find new market opportunities for commodity agricultural products, improve efficiency of production, develop new methods of disease control for both plant and animal commodities and facilitate communication between the government and academic scientists and American industry. American agriculture provides the vast majority of the food our citizens consume. The American agribusiness employs millions including the farmers, corporate agribusinesses, distributors and retailers. Thus, any improvements in performance, yield, health and productivity should impact the entire chain from production through consumption.

B) How serious is the problem? Why does it matter? Although greatly improved over the past years, the translation of technology achievements derived from basic research in government and academic laboratories to the market place has been poor. This is due in part to a lack of communication between the two disparate scientific cultures, one dedicated to discovery and the other dedicated to practical application through innovation. In fact, the gap between these entities has often been described as a chasm. It is well understood that basic technological advances are frequently made as a result of market needs, i.e. the market pulls technology not the opposite, or, technology pushing the market. To get a better return for the taxpayers investment in basic research, it stands to reason that knowledge of market needs must be applied to guiding the extension of fundamental discoveries to practical application. Industry brings this knowledge to the table and industry's participation in R&D consortia such as BRDC provides not only the market strategy needed but also a major leverage of the financial investment by the taxpayers. For example, BRDC estimates that in addition to the $15 million of cash payments to it by its shareholders and licensees, they, the shareholders and licensees, have invested over $13 million of 'in kind' research and development activities. This does not include their cost of marketing products. This is a key element of BRDC as it provides a significant leverage of federal funds.

2.List the milestones (indicators of progress) from your Project Plan.
Identify and fund the development of technologies that offer promise of commercial opportunity.

Successfully complete the development of technologies as measured by granting commercial licenses.

Establish a diverse and dynamic research and development portfolio that addresses the market needs of the agribusiness.

Adjust the R&D portfolio, on an ongoing basis, to properly reflect market needs.

4a.What was the single most significant accomplishment this past year?
BRDC sponsored research at NCAUR led to the creation of a new start up company that is projecting sales as early as the end of calendar year 2005.

4b.List other significant accomplishments, if any.
BRDC filed a series of new patents based on research done at NCAUR and funded by BRDC. These deal with the ability to graft hydrophilic polymer sheets to hydrophobic services. We are also in the process of filing a patent for a greatly improved process for ferulation of vegetable oils, the technological basis of the new company is iSoy.

5.Describe the major accomplishments over the life of the project, including their predicted or actual impact.
Over the life of the project BRDC has executed thirty-eight commercial licenses and has received $2.9 million in licensing revenue.BRDC is an R&D consortium dedicated to identifying promising technologies and providing the funding and corporate partners necessary to take them to the market place. Hence, the major accomplishments are measured in the degree of success we have had in attaining that objective. Significant technological achievements have been realized in all three of the focus areas.

Starch/Thermoplastic Resin Composites: Scientists at NCAUR working in collaboration with industry scientists have developed a family of composite materials that contain proprietary thermoplastic resins and natural polymers derived from commodity cereal and legume starches and flours. These materials exhibit remarkable mechanical and strength properties and can be fabricated into injection and compression molded articles, foams, films and laminates. Recent research results have shown that these basic materials can also be blended with polylactic acid to form new composites with totally new and distinctive physical properties. BRDC has licensed a chemical company the right to make loose fill packaging materials and has granted Dow an option to license the technology in all other fields of use. At present there is a vigorous research and development program being funded at NCAUR by BRDC. Preliminary studies show these materials to be completely biodegradable.

The Super-mas Plant Gene Promoter: Promoters are genetic regulatory elements that turn on/off the expression of a gene. A scientist at Purdue University has developed a proprietary promoter, under the auspices of BRDC funding, that BRDC has granted commercial licenses, or option to license, to nearly every major agriculture biotechnology company in the world. Licensees include Japanese, European, multinational and American companies. BRDC has made the promoter generally available to researches in the field of plant genetic engineering and to date over twenty-five research organizations have taken research licenses. The promoter is already being used in genetic engineered crops that are being prepared for field trials. To date this technology has generated over $1.3 million of BRDC's licensing income.

Over the past several years BRDC has filed a large family of patents that cover genetic elements that enhance the rate of genetic transformation and transgene expression in genetically engineered plants. This technology has been licensed to two BRDC shareholders.

In addition, a BRDC sponsored scientist has developed a method to create male sterile plants through the manipulation of specific genes in mitochondria. BRDC is embarking on a significantly expanded program in plant molecular biology. The goals are to develop transformation systems that will eliminate the need to use antibiotic resistance selectable markers, provide the ability to integrate genes in specific chromosomal sites, limit the copy number of integrated genes, and increase the frequency of transformation with agrobacterium. The latter project has progressed to the point where three patent applications were filed in the past two years.

In FY 02 BRDC entered into an agreement with investigators at the University of Illinois to develop a system for the regeneration of NAD/NADP(H) in redox catalysis. This project involves a system based on a newly discovered proprietary enzyme and a patent is pending. This program is intended to complement the ongoing project designed to molecularly evolve redox enzymes to carry out their enzymatic activities in nonphysiological environments and with the use of cheap cofactor substitutes.

The work on ferulated vegetable oils is anticipated to continue through development and scale up of production. We also anticipate that the film work at NCAUR will develop to the point that it is licensable.

6.What science and/or technologies have been transferred and to whom? When is the science and/or technology likely to become available to the end-user (industry, farmer, other scientists)? What are the constraints, if known, to the adoption and durability of the technology products?
Technologies have been transferred to a range of industries and universities for the following products:

RNA Catalyst for Cleaving Specific RNA Sequences

Methods and Composition of Adherent Starch Granules for Encapsulating Pest ControlAgents

Adherent Starch Granules

Novel Plant Activators for Gene Expression in Plants

Transcription in Plants and Bacteria and OCS Element

A Method for Making and Purifying Proteins

Biodegradable Starch Technology for Loose Fill Packaging Material

Certain Biological Material

Certain Biodegradable Polyester Technology

Lignin Encapsulation Technology for Wild-type (non-recombinant) Baculovirus Formulations

Enhanced Plant Cell Transformation By Addition Of Host Genes Involved In T-Integration

Adherent Starch Granules for Pest Controls

Device for Controlling Pests

Fusion Proteins

Analogs for Therapeutic Applications

Chromatin Domain Tagging Using Site-Specific Recombinases

Plasmid-Host Systems for Gene Structure Function Analysis

Gelvin Promoter

Post Harvest Fruit Decay Control

Opiate Analogs Selective The Opioid Receptor