シリコンバレーの大立者ジョン・ドーアとコーシュラが投資する第二世代バイオ燃料のベンチャーです。 http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/
イースト菌から低コストマラリア・ワクチンを開発した myris Biotechnologiesは、同様の手法で第二世代バイオ燃料に変換する研究を行っており、3年ほどで市場化の計画となっているそうです。
内容は、ガソリン代替として、「エタノールよりも高カロリー」で、低コストかつ燃料汚染を抑制し、既存の自動車やインフラと共存可能な燃料を開発中とのこと。（ブタノールでしょうか？） また、この他にも低い温度で安定し、貯蔵から輸送にかけて問題のないバイオディーゼル燃料についての開発も行われています。
http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/biology.html
http://www.amyrisbiotech.com/projects_biofuels.html
ＶＣ資金は２０ｍ（約２４億円）投入されています。下記に書かれていますが、ドーアも「悪名高き」と表現されてますね。ＩＴでは超大成功した人ですが、バイオは・・・ということでしょうか？
http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/141
Amyris Biotechnologies evolving ethanol
October 12, 2006 inside greentech Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company with ambitious plans to re-engineer ethanol, has raised a $20M first round from Silicon Valley heavy hitters ... and is welcoming to its board none other than the infamous John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). The financing was led by Khosla Ventures (as in Vinod Kholsa of Sun, Juniper and AOL fame), with additional participation from KPCB and Texas Pacific Group Ventures (TPGV). It's harder to find bigger names in Silicon Valley than Doerr and Khosla. Clearly, this is going to be one worth watching. The company also announced the appointment of John G. Melo, previously president of U.S. Fuels Operations for bp plc., as chief executive officer. Also joining the Amyris board at this time, in addition to Doerr, are Samir Kaul, general partner, Khosla Ventures and Geoff Duyk, managing director, TPGV. So what is Amyris up to? Well, in addition to its ongoing effort to create a low-cost malaria drug, Amyris will add a "new program aimed at renewably producing second-generation, high-performance biofuels with increased cost-effectiveness." So what exactly does that mean? The company won't specify yet, beyond saying they're working on a new type of ethanol that addresses some of the concerns about the fuel today.