Amyris is an integrated renewable products company providing sustainable alternatives to a broad range of petroleum-sourced products. Amyris uses its industrial synthetic biology platform to convert plant sugars into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules, flexible building blocks which can be used in a wide range range of products. Amyris is commercializing these products both as renewable ingredients in cosmetics, flavors, fragrances, polymers, lubricants and consumer products, and also as renewable diesel and jet fuels. Amyris Brasil S.A., a subsidiary of Amyris, oversees the establishment and expansion of Amyris’s production in Brazil. Amyris also has fuel distribution capabilities in the United States through its subsidiary, Amyris Fuels LLC. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Emeryville, Ca, Amyris has raised over $120 million in equity funding to-date, including investments from Total S.A.

Total S.A.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and...

, Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology and clean technology sectors....

, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TPG Biotech, and DAG Ventures

DAG Ventures

DAG Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. It is known as a "coattail" fund for co-investing in later-stage private financing rounds alongside more prominent top-tier venture funds such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Accel Venture...

. The company successfully went public on NASDAQ in October 2010 (AMRS).

Renewable Fuels

Amyris' technology platform, branded "No Compromise," is focused on providing high performance petroleum-alternatives, using sustainable feedstock such as sugarcane.

Anyris is establishing the partnerships and capabilities needed to bring the renewable diesel fuel to market. A few of these actions include:

• distributing ethanol through a US subsidiary, Amyris Fuels, based in Chicago IL.
• building a large scale production facility at Sao Martino, one of Brazil's largest ethanol producers
• joint venture with Cosan, one of Brazil's largest ethanol distributors and marketers

Artemisinin

Artemisinin

Artemisinin

Artemisinin , also known as Qinghaosu , and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria. Treatments containing an artemisinin derivative are now standard treatment worldwide for falciparum malaria...

 is a compound naturally found in the Chinese Sweet Wormwood plant effective in the treatment of malaria. Its production is hampered by difficult climate and agricultural conditions. Funded by a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Institute for OneWorld Health, Amyris Biotechnologies and UC Berkeley have been working together on the Artemisinin

Artemisinin

Artemisinin , also known as Qinghaosu , and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria. Treatments containing an artemisinin derivative are now standard treatment worldwide for falciparum malaria...

 Project since 2004 to help create a non-seasonal, high-quality, affordable artemisinin

Artemisinin

Artemisinin , also known as Qinghaosu , and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria. Treatments containing an artemisinin derivative are now standard treatment worldwide for falciparum malaria...

 supply. The goal is to reduce the production cycle to 14 days, in contrast to the months or years it can take to extract naturally occurring artemisinin

Artemisinin

Artemisinin , also known as Qinghaosu , and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria. Treatments containing an artemisinin derivative are now standard treatment worldwide for falciparum malaria...

.

In the first quarter of 2008, Amyris announced that it is transferring its technology to the pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis

Sanofi-Aventis

Sanofi S.A. is a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, the world's fourth-largest by prescription sales. Sanofi engages in the research and development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market, but the...

 for large-scale development. Their claim is it will ultimately enable the treatment of more than 500 million estimated individuals who contract malaria, with a goal of market availability by 2011–2012.

Media coverage

• A Better Biofuel on MIT Technology Review
  Technology Review
  Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
  
   (April 2007)
• Bets on Biotech on US News (November 2006)