Metabolix, Inc., a bioscience company, develops and commercializes technologies to produce renewable alternatives to petroleum-based products comprising advanced biopolymers, biobased industrial chemicals, and bioenergy. It produces a family of biopolymers known as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which occur naturally in living organisms and are chemically similar to polyesters. The company offers its biopolymers under the Mirel and Mvera brand names. It also develops four-carbon chemicals for high-performance engineering plastics and spandex applications; and three-carbon chemicals that have applications in paints, coatings, diapers, and adhesives. In addition, the company develops crops platform, a proprietary system to produce polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). It focuses on engineering switchgrass to produce PHB in the leaves for use in bioplastics, or as a precursor to industrial chemicals; to develop camelina for co-production of bioplastics along with vegetable oil, biodiesel fuel, and oleochemicals; and to maximize bioplastic production in the leaf tissue of sugarcane. The company serves primarily plastics, chemicals, and energy industries. Metabolix, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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