But Jeffrey Turner, the molecular geneticist behind the goat gambit and chief executive of publicly held Nexia Biotechnologies, has more pragmatic goals.
The major focus is the development of endogenous national and regional research capacities in the biological sciences and biotechnologies, for especially the developing countries.
But Amyris Biotechnologies, which is also based in California, in Emeryville, and which also started by dabbling in drugs (in its case an antimalarial medicine called artemisinin), is slightly more forthcoming.