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Issue: 1123 Date: 3/1/2012
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A promising new soy product emerges from a Mexico Mo., plant science center
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The Missouri Plant Science Center has been a boon for its first and only tenant, Soy Labs LLC.
The California nutritional supplement company moved to the center in Mexico, Mo., in March, just as the roughly $12 million project wrapped up and the center opened its doors. On Thursday, LunaRich, the company's first product developed and manufactured at the center, was unveiled as the new soy ingredient in Reliv International's health supplement powder, Reliv Now.
Reliv International, a Chesterfield nutritional supplement company, partnered with Soy Labs in August. It already has purchased 40,000 pounds of LunaRich, and 40,000 more pounds are ready to ship out of the 25,000-square-foot facility just off Highway 54.
Soy Labs' new product contains elevated levels of lunasin, and research from the company's lead scientific officer, Alfredo Galvez, suggests lunasin is the molecule behind many of soy proteins' possible health benefits. LunaRich contains five to 10 times the amount of lunasin in comparable soy powders, said Carl Hastings, Reliv's chief scientific officer.
"We are so excited about the lunasin material," Hastings said. "The evidence already of the benefits it can provide, we certainly were happy to be able to be the first company that could partner with" Soy Labs.
The new product is testament to the effectiveness of the Plant Science Center, touted as a shared-research facility that would attract companies interested in plant science projects and catalyze their development. Backers say the investment will bring in more companies and help bridge the gap between research and marketable products. But with equipment tailored to its needs and a lease on the entire building, the arrangement shows how willing the state is to pony up cash benefiting individual companies and the influence of lobbying groups.
The Plant Science Center has allowed Soy Labs to take LunaRich to market quickly. The 11-employee company, with about half of its workers hired locally, has the equipment, lab space and offices it needs, all funded with public money. Soy Labs is the managing tenant, leasing the whole building from a partnership of the University of Missouri, the city of Mexico and the Missouri Technology Corp. Rather than having a staff devoted to running the center, Soy Labs is in charge of subleasing and attracting other companies to use the facility. |
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