Business Roundup

Huntsman Corp. will pay $350 million to acquire Demilec, a maker of spray polyurethane foam insulation systems. Huntsman says the purchase forward-integrates its methylene diphenyl diisocyanate business.

Agrisoma Biosciences has raised $9.3 million from investors to expand output of the oil seed crop carinata, which is used to produce biojet fuel. Fuel made from the plant, a mustard relative, was used to power a Qantas Airlines flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles in January.

Ascensus Specialties is the new name for Vertellus Performance Chemicals, a producer of sodium borohydride. Ascensus separated from Vertellus Specialties during the latter’s 2016 bankruptcy.

TNO, a Dutch technology institute, and partners are investing $12 million to develop commercial processes for making aromatic chemicals from sugar. Bioaromatics could replace 40% of all chemicals, TNO says.

DuPont has formed a probiotic R&D agreement with the Center of Food & Fermentation Technologies in Tallinn, Estonia. DuPont formed a similar pact with three Irish institutions late last year.

Bruker and the Danish instrument maker Evosep are joining to develop and market a clinical proteomics analysis system. Together, the Evosep One chromatograph and Bruker’s timsTOF Pro mass spectrometer can quantify over 1,000 proteins in five minutes, the partners say.

Escalier Biosciences raised $19 million in series B funding to further develop small molecules that target a nuclear hormone receptor called RORγt to treat psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases. Clinical trials of a topical compound are expected to begin in mid-2018.

Boehringer Ingelheim has formed a third collaboration with Vanderbilt University. The two will build on discoveries from the lab of chemist Stephen W. Fesik to find drugs that inhibit the myeloid cell leukemia 1 protein.