David Smoller, president of Sigma-Aldrich's biotechnology unit, licensed the technology from Sangamo in 2006 when he felt the company had proved it worked.
Fresenius, based in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, is best known as the world's largest provider of dialysis services, but it also has a biotechnology unit that is developing cancer treatments.
Van Blarcom earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 2008 and took a position at Rinat, which develops protein-based therapeutics; Rinat was acquired by Pfizer in 2006 but was allowed to keep operating as an independent biotechnology unit.
It's a long-term science, but now is the time to get on the ground," says Denis Murphy, head of the biotechnology unit and biological research at the University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, in south Wales.
We acknowledge all Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Plant Biotechnology unit staffs; Jimma University, College of Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institutee, Addis Ababa; and Jimma University, College of Public Health and Medical Sciences for funding the project.
Outside the biotechnology unit, there are a number of research groups in the area of natural products and traditional medicine.
The university has a biotechnology unit within its Faculty of Science, where annually around 35 students are trained at the undergraduate level and 10 students at the graduate level.
Our acknowledgement also goes to the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun (CPC) staff especially Dr. Sara Eyangoh for their technical assistance during the bacteriological studies and the staff of the Biotechnology Unit, University of Buea where the DNA extraction took place.
An approximately 12-year-old plant of C. paniculatus, maintained in the field of the Biotechnology Unit, JNV University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, was used as the mother plant to collect the explants.
