WOBURN, Mass., Oct. 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Metabolix, Inc. (NASDAQ:MBLX), today announced that Kristi Snell, Ph.D. is representing Yield10 Bioscience today at a policy event focused on building a 21St century agricultural workforce. Sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (“OSTP”) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”), the event will unveil a new workforce policy initiative called “America the Bountiful” and bring together stakeholders from government, academia and industry to discuss initiatives to expand STEM education and disciplines from which to draw new workers to the agricultural sector.
As the global population grows to an estimated nine billion people by 2050, there will be an unprecedented demand for food and other agricultural products. According to the OSTP, the U.S. currently faces a potential shortage of appropriately trained agricultural professionals to meet the demand for innovation required to address food security.
“Through collaborations with leading academic researchers focused on identifying novel crop yield traits and which have been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, we have had a unique opportunity to work with STEM students who are on the path to becoming the next-generation agricultural workforce,” said Kristi Snell, vice president of research and biotechnology. “Providing STEM students with the opportunity to collaborate with us to identify new solutions to improve crop yield has been extremely rewarding for everyone. We look forward to enthusiastically supporting and contributing to this important workforce policy initiative.”
As an example of an industry/academic collaboration, Yield10 Bioscience is carrying out a series of field trials for a number of exploratory yield traits in the oilseed camelina with North Carolina State University. This work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program. While developed initially to increase biofuel production with camelina under ARPA-E’s Plants Engineered to Replace Oil (PETRO) program, these traits have the potential to increase yield in major food and feed crops, which is aligned with Yield10’s mission to address global food security.
A press release on the event can be found here: USDA Announces Increased Support to Expand and Diversify the U.S. Agriculture Workforce
About Metabolix/Yield10 Bioscience
Metabolix, Inc. is implementing a strategic plan under which the Company has wound down its legacy PHA biopolymer business and Yield10 Bioscience will become its core business with a focus on developing disruptive technologies for step-change improvements in crop yield. Yield10 is leveraging Metabolix’s extensive track record of innovation based around optimizing the flow of carbon intermediates in living systems. Yield10 is working on new approaches to improve fundamental elements of plant metabolism through enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and directed carbon utilization. Yield10 is advancing several yield traits in development in crops such as camelina, canola, soybean and corn. The Company is based in Woburn, MA.
For more information, visit www.metabolix.com. (MBLX-G)
For more information on Yield10 Bioscience, visit Yield10.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, expectations regarding the progress of Yield10, constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including the risks and uncertainties detailed in Metabolix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Metabolix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.