MBI (the Michigan Biotechnology Institute) is a non-profit

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

research accelerator based in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

. MBI came into existence in 1982 through a joint collaboration between the State of Michigan and a few different organizations, including the

W.K. Kellogg Foundation The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in June 1930 as the W. K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg. In 1934, Kellogg donated more than $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments to t ...

. MBI's original goal, as stated by Russell G. Mawby, chairman and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, was to "link university research with applications of biotechnology to expand our forest and agricultural industries, create jobs, and further improve the state's economic situation." The W.K. Kellogg foundation made a 4-year, $10 million grant to carry out this objective. MBI is sought out by industry partners for its unique derisking capabilities and their market-driven multidisciplinary team that accelerates the

commercialization Commercialisation or commercialization is the process of introducing a new product or production method into commerce—making it available on the market. The term often connotes especially entry into the mass market (as opposed to entry into e ...

of biobased technologies. MBI pioneered de-risking, a process that quickly and cost-effectively fails flawed technologies while accelerating viable ones through a stage-gated innovation process. MBI has collaborated with many notable companies in the industrial biotechnology, including:

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

, Genomatica, OPX Bio, and

Novozymes Novozymes A/S was a global biotechnology company headquartered in Bagsværd, outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. The company's focus was the research, development and production of industrial enzymes, microorganisms, and biopharmaceutical ingredie ...

. Most recently, MBI collaborated with Bolt Threads (Emeryville, CA) to produce synthetic

spider silk Spider silk is a protein fibre or silk spun by spiders. Spiders use silk to make webs or other structures that function as adhesive traps to catch prey, to entangle and restrain prey before biting, to transmit tactile information, or as nest ...

without the spiders. Historically, MBI also worked with

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and Cargill to develop PLA, the first

biodegradable polymer Biodegradable polymers are a special class of polymer that breaks down after its intended purpose by bacterial decomposition process to result in natural byproducts such as gases ( CO2, N2), water, biomass, and inorganic salts. These polymers a ...

in global use. On February 7, 2014, President

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...

and Secretary of Agriculture

Tom Vilsack Thomas James Vilsack (; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician. He served as the 30th and 32nd United States secretary of agriculture from 2009 to 2017, during the Obama administration, and again from 2021 to 2025 during the Biden admi ...

visited and toured MBI's facility prior to signing the Farm Bill at MSU's Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center. President Obama learned about MSU and MBI's joint project, AFEX, a pretreatment process for crop residues, and visited the pilot facility. The pilot facility was funded by in 2011 by a $4.3 million grant from the

US Department of Energy US or Us most often refers to: * Us (pronoun), ''Us'' (pronoun), the objective case of the English first-person plural pronoun ''we'' * US, an abbreviation for the United States US, U.S., Us, us, or u.s. may also refer to: Arts and entertainme ...

, allowing MBI to scale-up the technology. President Obama provided a favorable review of the AFEX technology during his visit. MBI was purchased by the

Foundation in 2007. MBI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Michigan State University Foundation and is located in Lansing, Michigan, on the south end of Michigan State University's campus.

References

{{reflist Health charities in the United States Biotechnology companies of the United States Charities based in Michigan Medical and health organizations based in Michigan