(FORTUNE Magazine) – CHESAPEAKE PERL Protein manufacturing www.chesapeakeperl.com

Who says girls don't like worms? Chesapeake PERL CEO Terry Chase lives for larvae--the cabbage looper's, to be specific. Chase grows them en masse for recombinant proteins, a key ingredient in drugs and vaccines for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis B. Chesapeake PERL's first commercial product will be a botulism antibody, developed with the U.S. Army's chemical-warfare labs.

PERL (Protein Expression & Recovery Labs) puts the larvae and insect food into cubed plastic trays. After incubating the grubs for a few days, it infects them with the desired virus, along with a gene that changes the worm's color when it begins producing the protein. The loopers grow for a few more days, and when they're ready, they glow under regular light. The final step: grinding them up and purifying the protein.

Manufacturing proteins usually costs a bundle. But unlike raising a cow to produce therapeutic milk, cultivating a worm from cradle to grave takes only a week. PERL, in College Park, Md., does it on the cheap, using off-the-shelf food-processing equipment in a nearby factory. Worms, gross? Nah. --Noshua Watson