It does so by integrating the latest computer tools, robotic chemistry and its own secret drug-modeling software.

FORBES: Machine Gunner

Instead of making drugs, they would use the high-tech tools of gene chips, high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry (the rapid mixing and matching of chemicals) and bioinformatics (software that analyzes data)--to develop entirely different compounds.

FORBES: Breaking a Sweat

Instead of using biological tools like enzymes and yeast to transform sugars, the company uses chemistry. (For a quick primer on biofuel technologies, click here.) Catalysts remove the oxygen from the sugars and rearrange the hydrogen and carbon atoms into fuel.

FORBES: Shell Biofuel Baby Grows Up A Little