About Us
We are a biotechnology company focused on leveraging our proprietary screening technology and microorganism database to discover, develop, manufacture and market safe and effective natural pest management products for agricultural and other markets. Our technology enables us to discover and characterize naturally occurring microorganisms that can be developed into natural product solutions for almost any pest or plant disease. We are developing a portfolio of natural products that will offer superior alternatives to existing synthetic chemical or genetically modified pest management products. Although our primary focus is on natural pest management products, our technology can be employed for the discovery and development of animal health, human health, aquaculture, industrial enzyme and specialty chemical products.
Using our proprietary technology, we screen naturally occurring microorganisms to identify those that may have novel and effective pest management characteristics. We then employ natural product chemistry to analyze and characterize the compound structures produced by selected microorganisms, to ensure there are no toxins, and to identify product candidates for further development and commercialization. To date, we have screened over 23,000 microorganisms, enabling us to identify more than 20 product candidates that display high levels of activity against insects, nematodes and plant pathogens. These include our Serenade®, Sonata®, and Rhapsody® biological fungicides, Virtuoso™ biological insecticide and Arabesque™ Biofumigant, all of which compete favorably with existing pest management products on efficacy, cost effectiveness, pest resistance, shelf life, ease of use, food and worker safety and environmental impact.
Our proprietary screening technology consists of the following steps:
- Collection and isolation. We use information from our proprietary microorganism database to identify raw samples that may contain novel and effective pest management characteristics. Our specially trained experts then isolate selected microorganisms from the raw samples.
- Fermentation. We ferment the selected microorganisms to initially test against pests and plant pathogens. We have developed several proprietary fermentation processes, similar to those used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, which are designed to replicate those that would be required for large-scale fermentation and commercial production.
- Testing (bioassay). We use automated, miniaturized biological assays to test the selected microorganism's effectiveness against several insect, mite and nematode pests and plant pathogens as compared to synthetic chemical pesticide standards. When a microorganism shows a high level of pesticidal activity, we conduct further tests to determine the host spectrum, possible mode of action, stability and activity on plants. We also determine the best formulation to maximize the pesticidal properties of each active microorganism.
- Natural product chemistry. Using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection technology, we compare the natural product compounds produced by each of the selected microorganisms with the compounds in our proprietary natural product library. This allows us to eliminate those microorganisms that contain known toxins and select those that we believe will have the best proprietary position, safety and efficacy. We do further characterization with HPLC, LC-MS and NMR.
How We Develop Our Products
After the preliminary commercial potential of a natural product is determined in laboratory, greenhouse and initial field tests, the product candidate moves into further development. Key aspects of our product development include:
- Process development. We have developed proprietary processes that increase the yield of both the microorganism and the natural byproducts produced in fermentation by the microorganism. This allows us to produce products that have superior performance and are less costly to produce than existing biopesticides and are comparable to or better than synthetic pesticides. We then scale up these proprietary processes in progressively larger fermentation tanks in our pilot plant and fermentation facility.
- Formulation. We possess the ability to develop proprietary wettable powder, liquid and granule formulations that allow us to produce specific product formulations tailored to customer needs. Our expertise allows us to develop products with enhanced performance characteristics targeted to meet customer demands, such as effectiveness, shelf life, suitability for organic agriculture, dispersibility, wettability, rainfastness, compatibility with other pesticides and ease of use.
- Field development. We conduct hundreds of field trials for each product candidate that we develop. These field trials are conducted in small plots on commercial farms or research stations by private and public researchers to determine use rates, spray timing and crop safety. We conduct field trials globally in both hemispheres to accelerate the results of our field trials and provide alternate season learning opportunities. As the product candidate nears commercialization, we conduct demonstration trials in conjunction with our sales and marketing team. These trials are conducted with distributors, influential growers and food processors on larger acreages in a commercial setting.