One of Eastman Business Park’s newest tenants is poised to become the largest RNA manufacturers in the world.

Researchers at GreenLight Biosciences are taking RNA, the materials which help transform DNA blueprints into life functions, and using them to help develop products for plant and animal health.

The overarching goal is to create safer and greener food systems, essentially using small building blocks of life to solve bigger issues.

One tool in that quest is double-stranded RNA. The team at Eastman Business Park has been scaling up production of these specific materials to the point where they can be produced in commercial quantities.

“When we began this project two years ago, our proprietary process for making double-stranded RNA was only done in very small volumes,” said Rochester site director Adam Shanebrook. “And what we’ve done here in Rochester is we’ve designed a plant scaling that up to the tanks you see here, and then in the future we’ll be scaling even beyond this for full commercial production for a full number of products.”

Shanebrook said the goal is for the Rochester facility to generate 1,000 kilograms of RNA per year. That would make it the largest RNA plant in the world, and the organization hopes to grow even further.

Shanebrook said Rochester has proven to be a beneficial home for the company. GreenLight Biosciences is based out of Boston, and looked at a number of locations for the facility now housed at Eastman Business Park.

“We believe Rochester’s a great place for green technology to live and thrive,” he said. “We selected Rochester not only for Eastman Business Park, with its utility services and industrial buildings, but also for the great skilled trades that are available to us to help us build this plant, as well as local universities with their biotechnology and engineering programs.”

For more information about GreenLight Biosciences, click here.