Pheronym®

The insight we gained from conducting 130 interviews in the agriculture ecosystem for the National NSF I-corps team program and the NSF Beat-the-Odds boot camp was priceless. We learned about our customers’ needs and were able to develop a strategy to focus our product development efforts on specific customers, market segments, and pests. We learned how to address the farmer’s needs, and identify key partners, resources, and more. Despite our 130 interviews, only 55 of them were growers. That is because August and September are the peak harvest time. The farmers were not available to take our calls because they were out in the fields. We wanted to continue our customer discovery and interview more farmers when they were less busy. Luckily, we had the opportunity to sponsor a class project at the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) Master of Business and Science (MBS) program in Fall 2020. We thought since the harvest is over, farmers would have time to talk to us and with the students’ help, we could interview more farmers. Keep reading to discover what we found.

Dr. Kaplan our CEO is among 8 experts identify the biggest hurdles to feeding a warming world featured by C&EN magazine Discovery Report Feeding the world.

You can download the report at www.acs.org/discoveryreports.

Pheronym is among the top 20 promising companies developing the future of farming technology, selected by C&EN by ACS in the Q4 2020 Discovery report “Feeding the world”.

The report can be downloaded at www.acs.org/discoveryreports

It was mailed to members with the November 30 issue of C&EN. By the end of February/early March 2021 the report will be posted online, open access to all.

Please join me at the SON Virtual Meeting on Dec 16, 2020, at 1 PM eastern time to tell you about “Dynamics of entomopathogenic nematode foraging and infectivity in microgravity.

The results of this exciting project (AstroNematode) recently published in a Nature Partner Journal “npj Microgravity“. To learn more about AstroNematode visit astronematode.com.

Focus is on full commercialization of company’s patented Nematode Pheromone Extract of Nematode Dispersal for Crop Biocontrol

DAVIS, CA, UNITED STATES, December 9, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Pheronym, an ag-biotech pest control company, has signed a 5-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS). This CRADA supports their existing National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR phase I grant awarded in mid-2020 and provides for greenhouse and field trials using the company’s patented method of pheromone production. The goal is to lay the final groundwork for commercial manufacturing of their sustainable, eco-friendly approach to pest control. The target pests include thrips, a globally important pest that developed resistance to chemical pesticides. Other target pests including but not limited to pecan weevil, citrus weevil, peachtree borer, and flatheaded appletree borer.

“The ability to deploy our solution at an industrial scale will contribute to a dramatic increase in sustainable agriculture,” said Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO of Pheronym. “This CRADA with the USDA ARS is a critical next step to making that happen and enabling us to fully commercialize our natural approach to pest control that will be better for people and our planet.” Keep reading.

This amazing video prepared by the Biomimicry Institute and the Ray of Hope Prize explains how Pheronym taps into nematodes’ pheromone communication system for eco-friendly sustainable farming.

We thank the Biomimicry Institute and Ray of Hope Prize.

UC Davis Venture Catalyst Knowledge Exchange Webinar

Launch Your Research and Development to the International Space Station: Partnering With the International Space Station National Lab

Featuring:

• Dr. Etop Esen, Commercial Innovation Manager, International Space Station National Laboratory
• Dr. Miki Sode, Commercial Innovation Manager, International Space Station National Laboratory
• Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO/CSO, Pheronym

Join us on Thursday, November 5, 2020, at 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM PST

Here is a link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/launch-your-research-and-development-to-the-international-space-station-registration-124487685017

Dr. Kaplan is invited to speak at the session “It’s Going Down for Real” Ecological Interactions in the Soil organized by Dr. Anjel Helms and Dr. Loren Rivera-Vega at the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Swayamjit Ray at Penn State.

The title of the talk is Pheromones stimulate dispersal of entomopathogenic nematodes during quiescence.

If you missed, you still have a chance to listen until November 25 on demand.

Read more on the nematode pheromones at Scientific Reports.

Nothing clarifies your value proposition like one hundred customer interviews.

To our surprise, neither conventional nor organic growers of specialty and row crops were satisfied with the current pest management tools. Regardless of their pest control practices, conventional, organic, or integrated pest management (IPM), growers are looking for new solutions to persistent pest problems.  Keep reading.