A federal commission studying national security will tour an Augusta factory poised to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign biotechnology.

The Manus factory on Lovers Lane uses and improves eco-friendly manufacturing methods to produce Reb M, a sweetener derived from the stevia plant but missing the bitter aftertaste in other stevia extracts.

On March 11, Manus will unveil and explain the major expansion of its domestic biomanufacturing capacity to members of the U.S. National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, created in 2022 under the National Defense Authorization Act.

Granted: Augusta biotech company gets $15M to boost Tamiflu production, fight flu

Manus touts itself as a biotech success story. Four years after the 2014 closure of Augusta’s NutraSweet artificial sweetener factory, Manus reintroduced an upskilled workforce to make the factory one of the world’s largest fermentation facilities. There, microbes are engineered to allow reliable mass production of Reb M.

Biomanufacturing often struggles with scalability. Extracting a particular molecule from a plant might succeed in a lab, but teasing out those molecules on an industrial level traditionally has been unsustainable.Reb M, which is about 200 times sweeter than sugar, exists in such small quantities in stevia plants that extracting it using more mainstream methods often was financially impractical, until Manus developed its proprietary production method.

Manus’ Augusta plant produces Reb M for the brand-name sweetener Yume, from the Japanese word for “dream.”

“Biomanufacturing is not a future promise – it’s here now, in rural Georgia,” says Ajikumar Parayil, Manus’ founder and CEO. “The Augusta BioFacility stands as proof that we can reshore production, create high-quality American jobs, and deliver resilient innovation at scale. We are honored to showcase this capability to the NSCEB and contribute to shaping a strong, coordinated national strategy.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Voters in Georgia House District 130 headed to the polls Tuesday to fill the seat held by Rep. Lynn Heffner, who resigned.

The Augusta Democrat resigned because she was unable to meet the residency requirement for House District 130 due to damage to her home by Hurricane Helene.

Six candidates are on the ballot — four Democrats and two Republicans.

Early results

Results are coming in. Here is where the race stands:

• Shelia Nelson, Democrat: 45.22%
• Karen Gordon, Democrat: 20.65%
• Sha’Quanta Calles, Democrat: 15.65%
• LaFawn Pinkney-Mealing, Democrat: 7.61%
• Thomas McAdams, Republican: 5.43%
• David Carson, Republican: 5.43%

This story will be updated as votes continue to come in.

Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

An Augusta city committee on Tuesday is scheduled to hear an update from the Recreation and Parks Department about nine municipal parks that are so seldom used that they might not be worth keeping open.

A civil engineering firm partnering with Recreation and Parks spent months gathering information on Augusta-Richmond County’s 51 public parks.

The audit by Infrastructure System Management scored the locations using a rubric that measured the sizes of the parks and how close they are to other parks. The audit also counted the number of park visitors to calculate how often the parks were used.

In a previous presentation to the committee last fall, commissioners learned that it would cost about $22 million to bring all city parks up to proper maintenance standards for just the first year.