In 2004, NAT began working with a leading biotech scientist with the NRC, Dr. Wing Sung, who has developed a commercially successful and environmentally friendly biotech enzyme process for bast fibers (primarily hemp) for use in fabric and composites. His enzyme processes were initially developed to create products for the pulp and paper industry (See biography below). After success in this industry, Dr. Sung and other experts hypothesized that applying their expertise on technology for processing commercially grown hemp would be a key step to reinvigorate the hemp fiber industry in Canada.

The Company also has negotiated a Master Agreement for Technology Development with the ARC for further product development and commercialization. The results to date from this collaboration have been proprietary industry developments in the fiber and composites industries. These productive relationships are expected to continue for the life of intellectual property covered by the patent applications.

Dr. Wing Sung, BSc, MSc, PhD
Principal Research Officer
National Research Council of Canada
Dr. Wing L. Sung is a Principal Research Officer at the Institute for Biological Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, with research interests in industrial enzymes, bio-products and natural fiber. His current research involves the application of glycosidase enzymes for the extraction of plant fibers for textile and bio-composite materials.

Dr. Sung is the researcher behind four generations of engineered xylanases for the production of bleached pulp, in partnership with Iogen Corporation of Ottawa. Iogen develops, manufactures and markets industrial enzymes and has raised C$130 million including C$30 million from Goldman Sachs and C$46 million from Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Iogen's technology processes four million tons of pulp in Canada and USA annually, resulting in a net saving of between $500,000 - $1,000,000/year per facility. Between 1997 and 2007, this technology was responsible for a cumulative reduction of 10,000 tons of undesirable organochloride byproducts by reducing the amount of chlorine bleach required in the production of 25 million tons of bleached pulp.

Wade Chute, P. Eng.
Senior Research Engineer, Agrifiber
Alberta Research Council
Mr. Chute received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering in 1991 from the University of British Columbia, where his interests focused on pulp and paper. As a process engineer, he was involved in the startup of the world's first zero effluent pulp mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. He also worked for one year with Slave Lake Pulp Corporation as a process engineer, followed by four years as a technical sales representative with Andritz Inc., a supplier of pulp mill machinery. Wade joined the Alberta Research Council in June of 1999 as the senior research engineer for agrifiber pulp and paper and has since become the manager of the pulp and paper business unit.