Company Information for FuturaGene, Plc.

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Company Statement

FuturaGene Overview

FuturaGene is a leader in plant genetic research and development for global agricultural and biofuel markets. Collaborating with renowned institutional partners worldwide, FuturaGene is able to take an innovative and multi-faceted approach to significantly improve agronomic traits of value in plants. Through our diverse programs, we are evaluating a large number of genes in multiple plant species of significant commercial value. These genes have been shown to play pivotal roles in the plant’s ability to tolerate environmental stress such as drought, salinity, heat and cold as well as to enhance yield and increase processability for the production of pulp and biofuels. FuturaGene’s technologies have progressed beyond the proof of concept. Our technologies are at various stages of evaluation in a variety of plants, ranging from high value crops to forestry and ornamentals. We carry on these programs independently, with leading universities and with world-leading industrial partners. With a strong intellectual property base, and continued addition to this foundation, we are able to provide customized yet sustainable agriculture. We live our mission “ Innovative Solutions for Global Agricultural Needs”.

FuturaGene Philosophy

Sustainable Agriculture Through Regional Partnerships and Continuous Innovation

FuturaGene believes that, although, the problems faced by agricultural industry are the same on the surface, however, diverse geographical location and climatic conditions, coupled with social and cultural difference, makes them nuanced.  We take a broader approach to these problems by working closely and engaging with regional partners to identify and arrive at answers.  Continuous innovation is at the heart of our scientific solutions.  And we intend it to be socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and sustainable for the long term while providing economic benefits. Our approach provides for mutual benefits to all our constituents.

Innovating a Greener Path for a Better Future

FuturaGene is the leading agricultural biotechnology company focused on research, development, and commercialization of technologies that play key roles in substantially improving agronomic traits of value in plants. Such improvements can be achieved with using genes inherent in plants and with no yield loss.

To date, we have more than 40 genes and gene candidates in our growing intellectual property portfolio that addresses environmental stresses in plants such as salinity, drought, cold, and heat.  In addition, we have other trait technologies under development that enable plants to grow faster and with improved lignin composition for paper and pulp, and biofuel industries. 

By using a combination of genetic, biochemical, genomic and proteomic approaches with tractable genetic models such as Arabidopsis thaliana and Thellungiella halophila, our programs allow us to discover novel genes, unraveling their functions in plant stress tolerance. 

Our ongoing, close partnerships with several prestigious research institutions worldwide enable us to utilize high-throughput transformation technologies to significantly accelerate the process of going from a target gene discovery to a stress-tolerant plant product that addresses market needs. This allows us to overcome many of the intrinsic bottlenecks in other technologies used in bringing transgenic plants with abiotic stress tolerance to the market.

Our Mission Statement

Innovative Solutions for Global Agricultural Needs™
By providing innovative green solutions to global agriculture problems, we are able to accelerate agricultural biotechnology to the marketplace and remain committed to the development of versatile, environmentally sustainable products.

Company Diagram

FuturaGene has discovered key genes implicated in these pathways that allow plants to significantly tolerate drought stress.

Current Operations

Gene Discovery Platform

FuturaGene has, through its institutional partners, developed a robust gene discovery platform using the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana and the salt cress Thellungiella halophila. Our platform relies on a phenotype-directed functional genomics technology, that enables us to more rapidly and efficiently discover genes and the traits they confer, such as salt, drought, cold, heat stress and improved biomass.

Our Gene Discovery Platform has resulted in a strong intellectual property portfolio that involves plant abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms. At present, we have patents issued and pending for more than 40 genes and genetic engineering technologies.

Our world renowned partners continue to provide important support for our development programs and a source of discoveries that provide an enriched pipeline of technologies.

FuturaDrought™

Water availability is one of the principal environmental limits of crop yield throughout the world. Drought hampers the cultivation of crops on more than 40% of the earth’s land surface. It poses serious threats to global agricultural production and food supplies. In order to minimize yield damage and improve food production efficiency in response to drought, we are deploying constructive strategies to counter this stress.

Plant response to drought stress is complex with multiple pathways playing roles in ameliorating the effects.  The phytohormone, abscisic acid (ABA) controls many adaptive responses in plants under drought conditions.  Among them are better managing closures of stomatal pores thus reducing water loss through transpiration.  FuturaGene has discovered key genes implicated in these pathways that allow plants to significantly tolerate drought stress.

Thus far, we have transformed several plant varieties with our FuturaDrought™ genes. The plants have shown to significantly improve plants’ response to water deficit.

FuturaSalt™

According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), over 10% of the irrigated lands in the world have been damaged by salt. Salinity, by inhibiting growth and crop yield, is a severe and increasing constraint on agricultural productivity. With continued farming practices this problem only gets exacerbated. Salinity tolerance has been considered to be a quantitative trait involving multiple genes and has had limited success to improvements by traditional plant breeding programs. FuturaGene has an active program to address this challenge.

One of our biotechnological targets for improving plant salinity tolerance is the genetic engineering of the Salt Overly Sensitive pathway. A critical aspect of salt tolerance is for plant cells to maintain a low concentration of the toxic sodium ion (Na+) in the cytosol. Our genes have proven to play important roles in three mechanisms that include:

minimizing Na+ entry into the cell,
eflux of Na+ from the cell, and
sequestration of Na+ into the vacuole.

FuturaGene has also discovered novel technologies, salt stress-regulated microRNAs that in addition to the SOS pathway help plants tolerate salinity. Greenhouse and field trials are currently underway in tomato, rice, wheat, peanut and tobacco plants for salt tolerance.

FuturaCold™

On an annual basis, about two thirds of the world’s land is subjected to temperatures below freezing.  And about one third of the land suffers from temperatures below -20°C.  Cold is a harsh climatic factor, which reduces the geographical distribution as well as the growing season of many crop species with the farming industry losing billions of dollars each year to freezing temperatures.

Cold response, like other abiotic stress mechanisms in plants is not conferred by one gene. As such, classical breeding has not been able to achieve frost hardiness in plants. Genetic modification by transferring one gene has not produced plants that are cold tolerant. FuturaGene and its research partners have realized that cold resistance, like other abiotic stresses, is a syndrome that would be best conferred using a multi-gene approach.

Upon exposing a plant to cold stress, FuturaCold™ technology – an upstream transcription factor gets expressed and in turn regulates the expression of key cold genes and other downstream genes. This expression and regulation of FuturaGene’s cold tolerant gene is able, to a very high degree, improve the  cold and freezing tolerance of the transgenic plants at various stages of growth and development.

Our discovery has garnered significant attention from the agricultural community. The transgenic expression of FuturaCold™ gene in cold-sensitive crops like soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes, rice and barley will provide a new way to increase the ability of such plants to survive cold temperatures.

FuturaEnergy™

According to recent reports, fossil fuel has been the source for over 99% of the world’s energy needs.  However, fossil fuel is not renewable, and they contribute to the carbon emission, which has been associated with global climate changes.  The world has realized that there are better alternatives to fossil fuel.

FuturaGene’s biofuel program is focused on improving the feedstock to be environmentally robust and provide yields that make bioenergy a feasible alternative. FuturaEnergy™ technology can be used to create biofuel feedstock with  increased biomass, shorter crop cycles and improved cellulose synthesis for use in biofuel. In addition to these advantages, we are also working on imparting traits that would allow feedstock to be grown in marginal and less than marginal land.

FuturaEnergy™ technology targets switchgrass, miscanthus, rapeseed, hybrid poplar and willow as biofuel crops.  We are developing technologies that are capable of producing plants that have altered cell walls, resulting in enhanced growth, biomass and increased cellulose content. With such improved traits, biofuel can be economically viable and can compete with or complement biofuel derived from other sources.

FuturaGreen™

Ornamentals are also subjected to same abiotic stresses as crops.  FuturaGene has embarked on a program to confer these stress tolerances in ornamentals.  Many ornamentals, especially turfgrass are also subjected to water use restrictions by the municipalities.

Our goal is to produce ornamental plants that would have superior stress tolerance over the classically bred varieties.  Initial results have shown that with FuturaGreen™ technology, we are able to produce ornamentals, which are drought, cold, and salt tolerant.

We have made and continue to make impressive progress in genetic transformation of many recalcitrant species. Together with our partners, we are proving biotechnological methods as useful tools for accelerating ornamental improvement.

Human Health

A large percentage of all prescription drugs have been derived from bio-organisms. Of these drugs, many of them were based on compounds discovered in plants. FuturaGene partners have recently discovered a protein abundant in plants, that is able to reduce glucose levels in type II diabetic mice.  Researchers from institutions in the USA, Korea, and Japan have discovered and proven the common protein, Osmotin, that protects plants from fungal infection mimics the activity of a hormone in mammals that is linked to weight loss.  And in addition to type 2 diabetes, Osmotin is also believed to play a role in mitigating heart disease, and obesity.

Osmotin is a member of a large anti-fungal protein family that is found in vegetables and fruits. It is a ligand for the yeast homolog of adiponectin receptor and activator of the AMPK signaling system by receptor binding. Osmotin is a highly stable protein that is absorbed by the digestive tract. This raises new possibilities for developing an orally administered plant derived treatment for the metabolic syndrome.

Board of Directors and Key Management

Mark A. Pritchard	Non-Executive Chairmann.
Dr. Stanley Hirsch	Group Chief Executive Officer
Peter A. Toynton	Non-Executive Director
Dr. Michael E. Fromm	Non-Executive Director
Gaetan Waucquez	Non-Executive Director

Company Address 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd Suite 115 West Lafayette, Alabama, United States IN 47906 Telephone: 765.497.7299 Facsimile: 765.497.1101 Email: info[at]futuragene.com Website: http://www.futuragene.com

Additional Address/Key Contact CBD Technolgies, Ltd. P.O. Box 199 2 Pekeris Street 4th Floor Park Tamar, Rehovot, Israel 76100 Phone: +972.8.931.9550 Fax: +972.8.931.9515 Email: kathyj@cbd-tech.com FuturaGene Investment Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Phone: +86.13511065789 Email: james@futuragene.com

Capital As of 29th June 2007, FuturaGene plcs capital is 42,679,103 ordinary shares of £0.005p each. As of that date the number of shares not in public hands as defined in the AIM rules was, in aggregate 7,325,117, representing 17.16% of the issued share capital.

Nominated Brokers Evolution Securities Limited 100 Wood Street London EC2V 7AN

Nominated Advisors Evolution Securities Limited 100 Wood Street London EC2V 7AN

Major Shareholders

Holdings of major shareholders, as registered on 29th June 2007, are listed below.
Jim Nominees Limited	(16.8%)
Chase Nominees Limited	(14.7%)
Pershing Keen Nominees Limited	(12.5%)
Mellon Nominees (UK) Limited	(11.6%)
Vidacos Nominees Limited	(7.7%)
Credit Agricole Cheuvreux	(6.1%)
Monument Capital LLC	(5.9%)
M.A. Pritchard	(5.6%)
J. Anderson (deceased)	( 4.7%

Most Recent Statement

06/09/07 - FuturaGene Announces Changes to its Scientific Advisory Panel
16/08/07 - FuturaGene Announces Appointment of Dr. Stanley Hirsch as Group Chief Executive Officer as well as Resignation of Mr. Kannan S. Grant
31/07/07 - FuturaGene announces collaboration between its CBD Technologies and Forage Genetics International on development of alfalfa with enhanced digestibility
01/07/07 - Annual Report 2006
26/12/06 - FuturaGene announces the details of its issued share capital and voting rights