LANSING, Mich. — Rawle Hollingsworth is a man who is going against the grain, but definitely not against corn-based materials.
Hollingsworth, president of Lansing, Mich.-based Afid Therapeutics, has made a career out of carbohydrate chemistry – the science of transforming carbohydrate-based materials in nature into usable synthetic products. These include paint coatings, drugs, plastics and other items.<br>
“Most polymers, most coatings, most plastics, most resins come from petrochemicals,” Hollingsworth, a chemist by training, said. “Most drugs come from petroleum.<br>
“What we have done is figure out a way of going from dried distillers grain (DDG) to making advanced drugs. We can make much more advanced drugs and materials than what you can get from petrochemistry.”<br>
Hollingsworth said training in chemistry has been dominated by petrochemistry, which is the chemical transformation of petroleum-based products, such as benzene, into other products. He said aspirin, for example, is derived from petrochemicals.<br>
The significance of all this for agriculture is that DDG, a byproduct of the corn-based ethanol process, is becoming more abundant in Michigan and throughout the upper Midwest as the ethanol industry expands. For several years, the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan (CMPM) has been partnering with Afid Therapeutics to locate more uses for the grains, which are used as livestock feed. The compounds and composites Afid creates, however, can be made from DDGs or from general corn stover. The CMPM has been helping fund Afid’s work for several years, said Jody Pollok-Newsom, executive director at the CMPM.<br>
“We were concerned that we might end up with a lot of DDG, and not enough market for it,” she said.<br>
Hollingsworth’s small startup firm has been developing a chemical intermediate platform from DDGs. These corn-based chemistries can be used in many of the same products that are used in petrochemistry. The compounds the company creates are used in drug-making, but these applications are somewhat limited in terms of volume, according to Hollingsworth.<br>
“The goal is to come up with really high-volume materials that are made from ethanol co-products and general corn stover,” he said.
Polyethylene, for example – used in Saran Wrap and similar products – is a material made by a petrochemical process, and it is widespread. Hollingsworth hopes that someday, polyethylene will be replaced by a process using DDGs or corn.<br>
He is a professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University and director of the Laboratory for Advanced Applications in Glycochemistry at MSU. He received his PhD. in chemistry in 1983 from The University of the West Indies. According to a spokesperson at MSU, Afid has licensed a broad portfolio of important MSU technologies that are related to carbohydrate chemistry, including dozens of issued and pending U.S. and international patents.<br>
To find out more about this company, go online at http://afidtherapeautics.com or call 517-336-4663.<br>