Soy Labs and Government Leaders Break Ground on Missouri Plant Science Center

The center will allow companies with commercially-viable, plant-sourced products to prove their concepts and develop novel manufacturing methods to bring the products to market.

12 May 2010 --- Soy Labs, LLC joined with Missouri state and federal dignitaries recently to break ground on the Missouri Plant Science Center (MPSC) in Mexico, Missouri. The first of its kind, the center will serve as a biotechnology hub for companies, like Soy Labs, to perform cutting-edge research and perfect manufacturing processes for ingredients and finished products that are the future of nutraceuticals, functional foods and plant biotechnology industries.

More than three years in the making, MPSC will be a shared-use facility offering companies office space, wet and dry research laboratories, and manufacturing equipment to process soybeans and other plant-based material. The center will allow companies with commercially-viable, plant-sourced products to prove their concepts and develop novel manufacturing methods to bring the products to market. Soy Labs will be the anchor and managing tenant of the 25,000 square-foot facility and will bring in other innovative companies that are the future of biotechnology for the state of Missouri and for the natural products industry.

“The goal of this project is to combine cutting-edge, plant-science research with pilot-scale manufacturing capabilities,” stated Soy Labs President Ryan Schmidt. “This pioneering technology maturation and commercialization center will rival any facility of its kind in the world. A rich campus of innovators and companies, like Soy Labs, that want to bring cutting-edge products to market, it will help better the lives of Americans through healthy, value-added products. A mammoth undertaking, it is made possible by an unprecedented collaborative effort between the University of Missouri, Soy Labs, along with several state and federal government agencies.”

Funding for the center was secured from several government entities and includes $5 million in Community Development Block Grant funding from the Missouri Department of Economic Development; $2.5 million from the Missouri Technology Corporation; $2.5 million from the University of Missouri system; and $950,000 in federal funds from the city of Mexico.

MPSC is the first development within the Business Innovation Park, which sits on 80 acres that will eventually be home to several new companies. In the near term, it is expected the first tenants will be up and running within the next 36-48 months. The governor’s office reports that Soy Labs’ relocation will create at least 20 new high-tech, high-paying jobs in the Mexico area, with many more to follow as MPSC reaches full occupancy and more facilities are added to the business park. It is estimated those jobs could number up to 1,000.

For the project’s recent groundbreaking, Schmidt was joined by a roster of distinguished dignitaries from the state of Missouri that included Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Missouri University President Gary Forsee, Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture Dr. John Hagler, State Senator Wes Shoemyer, State Representative Steve Hobbs, and a number of other state, local and business leaders.

Soy Labs is a soy-based ingredient supplier to the nutrition industry. Lunasin XP, Soy Labs’ flagship product is a patented, cholesterol-lowering soy peptide sold to the nutraceutical, functional foods and medical food industries to make “heart-healthy” products. As part of the company’s growth strategy, Soy Labs will focus future research and product development efforts on the combinatorial and formulaic compounds which include Lunasin and other phytonutrients that will play a role in the prevention of chronic disease. This strategy includes collaborating with other companies in the nutrition, functional-food, nutraceutical, medical-food, and cosmeceutical industries to create new intellectual property and uniquely positioned products. These collaborations will draw other companies into the facility and breed fresh ideas, innovative enterprises, new products, and many more jobs.