TransAlgae's Mission:

Overview

Algae cultivated on sea or recycled water with industrial carbon dioxide are the next generation technology for the $multi-billion market for multiple novel products from agriculture. Because of three inherent qualities missing in comparative technologies, algae stand out as a cutting edge technology for high value products.  TransAlgae, as a breeding company domesticating algae, has chosen as its first products after developing reliable platform technologies, high value feed for the rapidly developing aquaculture market:

A. Algae are naturally consumed as food in aquaculture, therefore algae serve not only as a miniature manufacturing engines but also as a potential oral delivery system for hormones and veterinary pharmaceuticals;

B. Unicellular algae are more efficient converters of solar energy and fertilizer into edible material than any crops, and unlike crops, algae can be cultivated in sea or recycled water;

C. Algae do not harbor pathogens dangerous to humans or domestic animals so that uncertainties and possible contaminants present in animal based feedstuffs such as fishmeal do not exist in algae.

In addition to their inherent qualities algae convert large amounts of carbon dioxide into biomass including oil, rich in omega fatty acids. This will be important when large scale cultivation of algae is cost effective, and algae can then be used to replace fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture, as well as used for producing biodiesel, replacing fossil diesel fuel.

At TransAlgae we believe that just as wild crops cannot be efficiently cultivated, undomesticated algae cannot produce valuable additives and products in a cost-effective manner to solve world needs. Thus, a sustainable solution to growing algae based high value products in both the long and short term can only come by domesticating algae through genetic engineering.

TransAlgae’s scientific team has developed its first generation of genetically engineered algae that are resistant to contamination (thus reducing downtime in production facilities), as well as introducing failsafe mechanisms that preclude the engineered algae from reproducing in natural ecosystems.  In addition to higher productivity and reliable growth, the engineering approach enables rapid development of algae expressing high value proteins, thus facilitating TransAlgae’s response to market needs.

TransAlgae was founded in 2008 and incorporated at the USA, with a research center located at the Weizmann Science Park in Rehovot, Israel.