Website aquabounty.com | Founded 1991 | |
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Industry Biotechnology
aquaculture Key people Ronald L. Stotish (President & CEO) Headquarters Maynard, Massachusetts, United States | ||
Ron stotish ceo aquabounty technologies
AquaBounty Technologies is a biotechnology company based in Maynard, Massachusetts, United States. The company is notable for its research and development of genetically modified fish. It aims to create products that aim to increase the productivity of aquaculture.
Contents
Products
The company has developed hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia designed to grow faster than traditional fish.
Their hybrid Atlantic salmon incorporates a gene from a Chinook salmon, which bears a single copy of the stably integrated α-form of the opAFP-GHc2 gene construct at the α-locus in the EO-1α line (Ocean Pout AKA Eel). AquaBounty has patented and trademarked this fish as the AquAdvantage salmon, a sterile Atlantic salmon female that can grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon.
The company also produces antifreeze proteins; and conducts research and development programs related to the commercialization of cryo preservatives and the antifreeze gene constructs.
Finances
In 2012, a New York Times article reported the finances of AquaBounty were not in good shape and the company had to reduce staff from 27 to 12. In March 2012, AquaBounty raised US$2 million in new capital, but this would only last until the end of the year.
Georgian investor Kakha Bendukidze owned 47.6% of the company's stock before selling to American synthetic biology firm Intrexon in October 2012. Intrexon put up $500,000 in bridge financing and offered to buy the rest of the company. Intrexon acquired majority ownership of Aquabounty in 2013.