Dr. Maurice Maloney
Dr. Maurice Maloney has made it his lifes work to
change the way plant proteins are developed for medicinal uses. As an
experienced researcher in the field of plant technology, there is possibly
no one better suited to study plant-produced proteins that have
pharmaceutical uses.
After being educated in England, receiving his BSc from
the University of London in 1974 and his PhD from Leicester Polytechnic in
1979, Maloney moved to Canada and began research on oil seeds. In 1987, he
joined the University of Calgarys Department of Biological Sciences.
In 1994, while working with Argentine canola, Maloney, whose career in plant technology
spans 20 years, successfully isolated and transferred the gene that
produces hirudin, a blood anti-coagulant used to treat people who have
suffered from heart attacks and strokes.
The same year, Maloney founded
SemBioSys Genetics Inc.,
a company dedicated to developing plant-based proteins for use in
medications. Today, he remains the chief scientific officer for the
company.
The process by which SemBioSys Genetics Inc. extracts
plant proteins is fairly simple. It involves fusing the proteins to
oleosins (a component of oil seeds that provides structure and limits
coalesence within the seed during compression) so that when the oil seeds
are harvested, the proteins are extracted with the oil and then separated
using centrifugation.
SemBioSys Genetics Inc. is the holder of 12 American
patents dealing with oil-based technology, the most recent of these being
awarded July 29, 2003.
In 2002, Maloney was appointed to Industrial Research
Chair in Plant Biotechnology of the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council in Canada (NSERC) for a three-year term.
[<<back]
Copyright © 2003
Heritage Community Foundation All Rights Reserved
|