jay keasling serves as chief executive officer. >> the research we do is paid by the taxpayers.search. we always have to go back and relate to them what we've done with that money and try to tell them and excite them about the science. >> the world first took notice of jay's scientific leadership when he and his team developed a synthetic version of a plant based antimalarial drug. >> right now there are about 250 million people on the planet that have malaria. roughly a million people die every year from malaria. the process, now, to make the antimalarial drug is you grow it up in a vat just like brewing beer. except rather than beer coming out you get this very valuable antimall aerial drug. we'll be able to reduce the price and stabilize the price and availability so anybody can get it whenever they want to. >> a company licensed the process his team developed and is currently producing over 30 tons of the medication with the hope to produce enough to treat over 100 million people every year. >> you're expressing this -- >> for me it's really gratifying to see that putting th