Startup cash provided by Maryland taxpayers has helped develop billion-dollar technology companies, and about $104 million in state and local tax revenue, according to a recent study of the state?s program to fund university- and private-sector scientific research.
The latest example, announced Monday by University of Maryland scientists with Gov. Martin O?Malley in tow, is Zymetis, a young company with designs on turning trash into ethanol fuel with the help of a rare bacterium found more than 20 years ago in the Chesapeake Bay.
The bacterial bottom-feeder can break down molecules no other bacteria bother with, such as greasy hamburger wrappers, scientists said, and turn them into inexpensive fuel.
“We can feed our stupid Hummers and not feed it with corn that goes into people?s bellies,” said Jonathan Dinman, one of the scientists working on the project.
O?Malley hopes the meager funding provided by the state propels Zymetis to become a business leader of the “green economy” he envisions for Maryland. State funding comes through Maryland Technology Development Corporation, an agency within the Department of Business and Economic Development.
Its grant budget, though proposed to decrease by $234,000 in 2009 to $4,792,000, funds 18 technology business “incubators,” essentially providing salaries, equipment and space to scientists with promising ideas.
The bulk of the agency?s operating budget, $23 million, goes to the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.
A November study found Maryland?s model to be one of the best in the nation. Firms that “graduated” from the four-year incubator period increased state output by $2.7 billion per year and employed more than $14,000 full-time employees.
David Barbe, executive director of the University of Maryland incubator, said he expects Zymetis to start contributing to those figures even before its four-year tenure, started several months ago, is up.
“This one is very, very cool,” Barbe said. “I think they?ll move too fast to stay here long.”
