By the mid-1980s, the fledgling biotechnology industry had made major strides towards commercial success in the field of biopharmaceuticals.
The founders of Metabolix, Dr. Oliver Peoples, Professor Anthony Sinskey, and Dr. Simon Williams further pioneered the commercial application of molecular biology, at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. Dr. Peoples developed what is now known as metabolic engineering: by introducing entirely new, metabolic pathways in organisms for the purpose of producing biopolymers. Mirel is the first example of this application of metabolic engineering. This has since been applied to improving the economics of producing commercially viable plastics, chemicals, and energy from biomass sources.
Metabolix' objective is to use biotechnology to develop environmentally sustainable alternatives to the numerous petrochemical materials and processes now used for many products essential to our quality of life.
Our integrated interdisciplinary team is applying the cutting edge tools of biotechnology to create a new generation of highly versatile, sustainable, bioplastics, biobased chemicals and bioenergy with unequalled environmental benefits.