BioConsortia showcases innovation pipeline

BioConsortia displayed its innovation pipeline on Aug. 30 at its Davis, Calif., headquarters in an investor-focused Technology Showcase event.

“Today, we highlight the breadth of innovations developed to replace crop inputs with superior, microbe-based solutions for agriculture,” Marcus Meadows-Smith, CEO of BioConsortia, Inc., said in a news release.  “The recent progress of our pipeline, including some exciting technology breakthroughs, means we are ready to advance multiple major products into the commercialization phase with marketing partners.”

The release said the Technology Showcase event highlighted products moving into partner trials, the commercialization phase and new pipeline projects, including:

• N-POWER seed treatment field trials. N-POWER will be the first nitrogen-fixation seed treatment product based on robust, spore-forming technology, enabling easy adoption through an application methodology already well-integrated in farming.  
• GARNET biofungicide in an optimized postharvest formulation: GARNET, already proven as a foliar and soil fungicide, will also be made available as a 50-times concentrated formulation to protect both conventional and organic fruits and vegetables from a wide variety of postharvest diseases that today limit shelf life.  
• Additions to the bionematicide pipeline and NO-NEM: BioConsortia added three new active ingredient leads to the nematicide pipeline and advanced NO-NEM, the company’s first nematicide, to full development phase. BioConsortia’s nematicide pipeline is among the most robust in agricultural product development.  
• Novel genetic components for nitrogen fixation: The company announced the discovery of novel genetic components driving nitrogen fixation, utilizing its GenePro platform to enable BioConsortia’s scientists to design proprietary microbial strains that will fix nitrogen when other nitrogen-fixing strains will not.  
• Bactericide and insecticides: Project leaders highlighted early technological success in projects aiming to deliver effective microbial metabolites for control of bacteria, and critically important coleopteran and lepidopteran insect pests.