Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Allied Minds spins outs tech turning algae into biofuel

By Mass High Tech Staff

Allied Minds Inc. of Quincy reports it has backed AXI LLC, a biofuels spinout from the University of Washington.

AXI plans to use technology developed at the university to develop commercially useful strains of algae that can be used as feedstock for the production of biofuels.

University of Washington biology professor Rose Ann Cattolico, developer of the AXI technology, points out that algae has a couple of advantages over other feedstocks — it can be grown on lands unsuitable for crops, and it eats CO2.

The amount of the seed-stage funding for AXI by Allied Minds was not disclosed.

Allied Minds is an early-stage investor that relies on university research-derived intellectual property.

In July, the firm announced it had helped to launch Precision Biopsy LLC out of the University of Colorado. The company, which lists its contact location in Quincy, is developing an optical biopsy needle intended to diagnose prostate cancer.

Also that month Allied Minds announced its investment in the newly formed Harvard University and Northeastern University spinout, CryoXtract Instruments LLC. The newly formed company uses its technology to extract small quantities of frozen biological samples without subjecting them to freeze-thaw cycles.

In late 2007, the firm invested $500,000 in Harvard spinout SiEnergy Systems LLC, which is developing a fuel cell to generate power at lower temperatures.