Oilseeds get a makeover

When you think of safflower and canola, you probably think of cooking oil. And you’re right. These yellow or orange-flowered crops are widely grown and commonly used as cooking oil. But an innovative company based in Calgary has found other uses for oilseeds that are far removed from the dinner tables of the world.

SemBioSys Genetics Inc. is a plant biotechnology company that has developed a unique system to develop products for the personal care, nutritional and pharmaceutical industries. The oilseeds, grown in southern Alberta, are their production vehicle.

“The vegetable oils from oilseeds form the basis of a wide array of ingredients used in many personal care products,” explains Andrew Baum,CEO and President of SemBioSys. “People are continuously looking for new things to do with them and we’ve found some really novel ways to use them.”

New tricks for a familiar crop

SemBioSys’s proprietary technology is anything but simple to the lay mind. It was pioneered in the early 1990s by Dr. Maurice Moloney, founder and chief Scientific Officer of SemBioSys Genetics Inc. and Chair of Plant Biotechnology at the University of Calgary. Based on the technology patented by Dr. Moloney and working with University Technologies International, SemBioSys was founded in 1994.

The company’s technology is classified as molecular farming, an emerging and revolutionary agroscience, which develops platforms for the production of vaccines, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes and other innovative products. It is one of the fastest-growing applications of biotechnology.

SemBioSys’s technology platform is based on genetically engineering oilseeds to produce high-value proteins for the pharmaceutical, personal care and food industries. The proteins are attached to oil bodies found in oilseeds. Seed oil bodies are separated to yield highly enriched protein fractions for cost-effective purification of the protein. By addressing purification as well as bulk production costs, SemBioSys’s technology has the potential to transform the economics of purified protein production.

New products in the pipeline

Based on this technology platform, SemBioSys is building two businesses. The company’s molecular farming business is focused on manufacturing highvalue protein products, primarily for pharmaceutical markets. For example, the company is producing a prescription drug designed to control obesity. Other developing products are geared for use for topical skin applications.

The “cosmaceutical” ingredients part of the business will develop a wide range of essential ingredients for personal care products that include, among others, body lotions, shampoos, sunscreen and skin whitening agents.

The SemBioSys corporate and process development work operates out of a 5,400-square-foot facility in northeast Calgary, while its research is conducted in U. of C. laboratories.

“The exciting thing about SemBioSys is that we are working in a new type of business,” says Baum.  “This technology is so powerful that we are limited only by our imagination.”