Maurice Moloney

Maurice Moloney leads the Food, Health and Life Science Industries Group in CSIRO - Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Prior to that he was the Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research, between 15 April 2010 and December 2013. He was previously the Chief Scientific Officer of SemBioSys Genetics Inc., a post that he left on March 25, 2010, remaining a consultant to SemBioSys. SemBioSys is a plant biotech company well known for its controversial work on pharma crops (eg producing insulin from safflower seeds). A GM pharma specialist, Moloney worked at SemBioSys on deriving a blood anti-coagulant, hirudin, from GM canola.

Previously, Moloney led the Cell Biology group at Calgene, acquired by Monsanto in 1997. At Calgene he developed the world's first transgenic oilseeds, which resulted in RoundUp Ready Canola and other novel crops. Moloney holds more than 300 patents.

He is a professor at the University of Calgary, where he holds the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)/DowElanco Chair in Plant Biotechnology.

Criticism

The director of GMWatch, Jonathan Matthews, wrote in an article for Spinwatch about Rothamsted's industry alignment under Moloney's directorship:

This industry alignment is perfectly illustrated by Rothamsted itself, which partners up with corporations like Bayer, Syngenta and Dupont. It also has an Institute Director who not only drives a Porsche with a GMO number plate but has a c.v. to match. It is Maurice Moloney’s GM research that lies behind Monsanto’s GM oilseed rape. He is the inventor of more than 300 patents and prior to Rothamsted, he also successfully launched his own GM company in Canada - SemBioSys Genetics Inc., in which Dow Agro Science were investors. This was flagged up by the BBSRC when they appointed Moloney in a press release praising his 'effective translation of research into successful business activity.'

A picture of Moloney's GMO-labelled Porsche can be seen on the Spinwatch website.

Biography

The following is Moloney's biography from a SemBioSys Genetics Inc. document, "Company Overview", located on the Canadian government Foreign Affairs and International Trade website:

Dr. Moloney, our scientific founder, has over twenty years of extensive experience in plant biotechnology and has been our Chief Scientific Officer since July 2001. Dr. Moloney held the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair in Plant Biotechnology from 1995 – 2004. Dr. Moloney is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary where he has been teaching since 1990. Prior to these positions, Dr. Moloney was the head of the Cell Biology Group at Calgene Inc., where he developed the first transgenic oilseed plants using canola as the model crop. This resulted in a landmark patent in plant biotechnology and eventually became the basis of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready® and Liberty Link® canola products. Dr. Moloney has published more than seventy original research papers and is an inventor on eighteen issued or pending patent families. Dr. Moloney serves on many federal and corporate advisory boards and is currently a member of NSERC Council and the Chairperson of NSERC’s Committee on Research Partnerships. Dr. Moloney has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Alberta Science and Technology (ASTECH) Award for leadership in Alberta Technology. Dr. Moloney received his B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Imperial College at the University of London and his doctorate in Plant Biochemistry from Leicester Polytechnic in the United Kingdom.

Comments on Moloney's appointment as Rothamsted head

GM Freeze

The following is Pete Riley of GM Freeze's comment on Moloney's appointment as Rothamsted director and CEO:

The appointment of Professor Moloney to this important post suggests that the BBSRC [funder of Rothamsted] is pushing on with the strategy of putting GM and biotechnology at the forefront of agricultural research. This would be a mistake as GM technology is expensive, unproven and risky. Agroecology is already delivering results for small farmers in the South. What is needed is more research and, critically, improved education services so that new agroecological techniques can be quickly applied by farmers over large areas. Rothamsted Research should place greater emphasis on agroecological research and development. They are in a great position to do so. We will be monitoring their research priorities and those of other BBSRC funded institutions to makes sure that agroecology gets a fair share of tax payers money.

Prof Joe Cummins

Prof Joe Cummins, professor emeritus of genetics at the University of Western Ontario, commented on Moloney's history at SemBioSys and his appointment at Rothamsted:

Professor Maurice Moloney and his company SemBioSys have focused on producing pharmaceuticals in the oil crops canola (rapeseed) and safflower. In the early efforts a blood thinning peptide called hirudin was produced in canola and had open field tests in the canola growing area of the province Alberta. Hirudin is extremely toxic if consumed even in small quantities by humans or animals. Such open field tests should not have been allowed as the canola pollen is spread widely producing persistent drug pollution of the food and feed crop.

Currently safflower-grown human insulin has been open field tested in the state of Washington in a sagebrush wild area of the state which is the habitat for a number of threatened wild species that can be poisoned by ingesting insulin. It is safe to say that Maurice ... will likely spread the gospel of producing pharmaceuticals in food crops as it is done in Canada. In Canada and the United States open field tests of crop bio pharmaceuticals are undertaken with little or no respect for the environmental consequences of the open field releases. UK can now likely look forward to biopharmacueticals in their food, whether they like it or not!