State puts $4M in Los Alamos firm
Pebble Labs says it has developed ‘breakthrough’ biotech advancements
LOS ALAMOS — New Mexico state government is pledging $4 million in economic development dollars — and potentially millions more — to a biosciences firm in Los Alamos that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said is working on cutting-edge advancements that “we know will make a difference in New Mexico and the world.”
The governor announced the funding in a steamy greenhouse Tuesday afternoon at Pebble Labs USA. She said the state money will assist Pebble with expansion of its business “into a world-class research and development facility.”
The company does research on food and crop safe
ty, public health and the reduction of the occurrence of vector-born diseases including the Zika virus.
As part of the Tuesday announcement, Pebble said it has reached a “breakthrough” in substantially reducing disease in farm-raised shrimp without the use of antibiotics, using its patent-pending method to reduce the transmission of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), among the diseases that keep 40 percent of shrimp from getting to market.
“This is a major breakthrough because it will increase the yield of shrimp farms and other food sources, such as salmon and even poultry and beef, without the over-use of antibiotics,” said former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Richard Sayre, Pebble’s chief science officer and founder.
Sayre said Pebble is currently in negotiations “with really major global corporations” for use of the technology.
Pebble says the system doesn’t genetically alter the shrimp itself, “meaning it is a non-GMO food source.”
Sayre said the company is also close to achieving a 100 percent success rate in keeping mosquitoes from replicating the Zika virus — without killing off the bugs — via Pebble’s “RNA interference” biotechnology. The absence of the pathogen would be passed on to subsequent generations through the insects’ eggs, with a goal of eradicating the virus.
Pebble Labs has 83 employees now. The expansion plan calls for 175 jobs at the company at average pay levels of $130,000 a year, big numbers that Lujan Grisham said go beyond “any kind of typical expectation” for an economic development project. The additional employees are expected to be hired over 10 years.
“New Mexico can do anything, as you are demonstrating,” the governor told Pebble officials as she arrived at the company’s facilities.
State Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said the state is pledging $4 million in Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) funds to help with expansion of the Pebble campus, located in Los Alamos’ Entrada Business Park.
Keyes said Pebble also qualifies for up to $3.25 million in employee training money from the state’s Job Training Incentive Program, which offers grants that help reimburse businesses for the cost of employee training. Pebble may also apply for future incentives such as the high-wage jobs tax credit. Both programs have application guidelines and benchmarks that would have to be satisfied.
Also, Los Alamos County is donating $1.4 million in property next to the lab, issuing $12.5 million in industrial revenue bonds for the expansion and will retain ownership of a portion of the property with Pebble, which will lease the space back from the county until the bonds are paid off.
Pebble itself plans to invest at least $60 million in the next 10 years, according to information provided at Tuesday’s announcement. The expanded campus will cover 10 acres.
Attacking pathogens
Sayre explained that Pebble produces interference RNA molecules that target a messenger RNA produced by a pathogen and degrades it. “By degrading that messenger RNA, you effectively turn that gene off, and that really is the essence of it,” he said.
He said the technology, promoted as a sustainable technology to replace antibiotics and pesticides, has been around for some time and that the challenge has been overcoming issues of cost and delivery, which Pebble has solved.
He said the process is non-toxic and environmentally safe, with the likelihood of an “off-target effect” at one in 43 trillion.
Pebble CEO Michael Harrison said, “We’re changing the world in a very positive way.”
A state government news release said Pebble will spend $20 million annually and that the direct economic impact of the expansion is expected to be $577 million, with over $1 billion in total economic impact, both direct and induced.
Later this summer, Pebble is scheduled to buy its existing biolab and greenhouse from the New Mexico Consortium, a nonprofit started by the state’s three research universities and LANL to enhance cooperation which provided incubator services. The consortium will move to new facilities.