Nematode Pheromone Extract Dramatically Increases Efficacy of Nematode Dispersal for Crop Biocontrol
DAVIS, California – August 24, 2020– Pheronym, an Ag-biotech pest control company, has been granted its patent for its breakthrough in creating a way to increase the effectiveness of Nematodes’ ability to control pest insects, naturally, in agriculture. The patent is listed as “Nematode dispersant composition and method” and is US patent number: US 10,736,326 B2.”
While nematodes (microscopic roundworms) are regularly used in pest control, commercially available nematodes do not disperse as well as they could when they are applied to a field. This is because they have lost their pheromone signal to hunt for new prey. Since the insect target is mobile, the nematodes need to be actively moving and hunting for a new insect host. Pheronym’s patent directly impacts this problem – significantly improving the mobility and aggressiveness of the nematodes making them more effective in killing pests. It also expands their effective temperature range.
Dr. Fatma Kaplan, Inventor
“It’s great to have additional validation on our breakthrough,” said Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO of Pheronym. “The recognition of our IP along with four peer-reviewed studies on its effectiveness bring us another step closer to broad commercialization of this natural approach to pest control that will be better for people and our planet. ”
DAVIS, CA, UNITED STATES, August 10, 2020 — Pheronym, an ag-biotech pest control company, announced today the results of their fourth peer-reviewed study, this one focused on the results of their collaboration with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (manager of the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory) and USDA-ARS during onboard experiments conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) between December 2019 and January 2020. The study, published in Nature Partner Journal/npj Microgravity, highlights that nematodes successfully emerged from consumed insect host cadavers, moved through soil, found and infected bait-insects in a manner equivalent to Earth controls. However, nematodes that developed entirely in space, from the egg stage, died upon return to Earth, unlike controls in microgravity and on Earth.
The research, led by Dr. Fatma Kaplan, focused on the beneficial nematodes’ dispersal, foraging, infectivity, and pheromone production in microgravity.
“This agricultural biocontrol experiment in space gives insight to long-term space flight for symbiotic organisms, parasite biology, and the potential for sustainable crop protection in space,” said Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO of Pheronym. “It gives us valuable insight on how to keep beneficial nematodes alive and viable for agriculture on other planets.”
Crop protection, via biologicals and chemicals, continues to be active, with new companies RNAissance Ag(disclosure: TechAccel is part owner), Enko Chem, Pheronym, IBI-Ag, and Impetus Ag all on the scene, generally with focuses on insect pests. Keep reading.
The Beat-The-Odd-Boot Camp was part of our National Science Foundation (NSF) Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant with a focus on entrepreneurial training. Our first job in the Boot Camp was customer discovery for the innovation that we are commercializing. To do this, we needed to “get out of the building” and conduct in-person interviews with at least 30 potential customers, something that is pretty hard to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we conducted video interviews. In 2017 and 2018, we undertook a broad customer discovery (a total of 50 interviews) with deep dives in 3 segments; greenhouse growers, stone fruit growers, and nut growers. When we started the Boot Camp in May 2020, we thought we already knew our customers, and we were not sure what we could learn. It turns out we learned quite a bit. Keep reading.
Focus is on scaling manufacturing for their patented bio-remediation approach
DAVIS, California – June 9, 2020– Pheronym, a bio-ag-tech pest control company, has received a National Science Foundation Grant (NSF) for its nematode pheromone focused pest control solution. The $225,000 award will help the company bring their patented approach to the market by developing advanced fermentation methods to manufacture its nematode dispersal and infectivity pheromones, which are used to enhance control of agricultural pests. Pheronym has now secured a total of $1,150,000 in research grants over the past two years. Learn more about the grant details here.
“We continue to move aggressively forward on the path of commercialization,” said Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO of Pheronym. “This grant will allow us to focus the necessary resources on a scalable manufacturing process.” Keep reading.
Two Davis agtech firms are breathing a little easier this week after receiving a grant of $25,000 each to help them reach commercialization milestones.
Pheronym and FloraPulse, both pre-commercial agtech companies, will use the funds to continue commercialization work which the COVID-19 health crisis had forced them to postpone or cancel.
Agtech is broadly defined as the application of technology — especially advanced biologics, software and hardware — to agriculture.
Pheronym is a pioneer in the use of nematode pheromones to control both beneficial and plant-parasitic nematodes, or microscopic roundworms, that can dramatically affect plant health. The $25,000 grant allows Pheronym to hire a technician to help prepare for the re-start of field trials for their first product as well as to start laboratory and greenhouse testing on a second line of new pheromone-based products. Keep Reading
By Emily Hamann – Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal
Being designated an essential industry hasn’t kept the founders of Pheronym from encountering work-stopping disruptions.
“We were allowed to keep working, but the people we work with aren’t,” said co-founder Karl Cameron Schiller.
Pheronym is a Davis-based agricultural technology startup working to develop pest-control products based around its research on pheromones that control tiny worms in the soil called nematodes.
Company founders CEO Fatma Kaplan and Schiller were preparing to bring their products to market next year.
Sustainable pest control using nematode pheromones for crop protection in the running for $100,000 prize.
DAVIS, CA, May 8, 2020 – Pheronym is pleased to announce that it has been recognized as a finalist in the Ray of Hope Prize®, a $100,000 prize competition presented by the Biomimicry Institute. Pheronym uses a new kind of pheromone for eco-friendly, agricultural pest control, increasing crop yield and food production. Pheronym’s first product, Nemastim, makes beneficial nematodes more effective for insect pest control in the soil.
Nemastim makes beneficial nematodes (Steinernema feltiae and Steinernema carpocapsae) better biocontrol agents and expands their effective temperature range down to 15℃, making them an even more effective solution today and in the future. The beneficial nematodes move faster, go deeper in the soil, and infect in 3X greater numbers. The benefits of this approach, including enhanced efficacy, reduced costs, and increased sustainability, are exactly the things that our agricultural customers are asking for and consumers of produce are demanding.
“As the world searches for more environmentally friendly crop protection solutions, Pheronym presents an elegant solution,” said Jared Yarnall-Schane, Entrepreneurship Director, Biomimicry Institute. “By emulating nematodes’ natural communication methods, pheromones, they increase efficiency and efficacy. This makes an organic form of pest control cost-competitive with synthetic alternatives.”
Pheronym is one of the nine companies, out of 190 applications spanning 42 countries, in the running for the $100,000 prize, which will help the winning company accelerate their path to commercial success. The Biomimicry Institute’s expert selection committee will decide which nature-inspired startup will take home the prize in the fall of 2020.
Pheronym’s founding team offers complimentary skill sets: Mr. Karl Schiller, COO, is an economist and Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO is a scientist, giving them the necessary breadth of knowledge to bring a novel biological technology like Nemastim to market. Mr. Schiller’s business expertise helps the team rapidly organize and achieve legal and regulatory milestones while Dr. Kaplan focuses on executing her vision to achieve technical milestones and raise funds.
Dr. Kaplan has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. She discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which was published in Nature in 2008. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both plant parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Dr. Kaplan and Mr. Schiller conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in Space at the International Space Station in 2020. Together they co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and believe that this technology will provide effective, pollinator/bee-friendly, non-toxic pest control for farmers and gardeners. Studies on nematode pheromones’ efficacy, infectivity and temperature range can be found here.
“The Ray of Hope prize committee’s recognition of our bio-inspired technology validates our belief that nature holds the keys to future agricultural innovations,” said Mr. Schiller founder of Pheronym.
To learn more about Pheronym, visit pheronym.com. For more information about the Biomimicry Institute and Ray of Hope Prize, visit biomimicry.org.
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ABOUT PHERONYM
Award-winning Pheronym is an ag-biotech pest management company that enables sustainable farming through its novel platform of nematode pheromones. Based in Merritt Island, Florida and Davis, California, the company uses a new pheromone to control plant-parasitic nematodes (microscopic roundworms) in an eco-friendly way and enhances beneficial nematodes’ efficacy to eliminate pest insects.
ABOUT THE BIOMIMICRY INSTITUTE
The Biomimicry Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 that empowers people to seek nature-inspired solutions for a healthy planet. To advance the solution process, the Institute offers AskNature.org, a free online tool that contains strategies found in nature and examples of ways they are used in design. It also hosts a Biomimicry Global Design Challenge and Youth Design Challenge to support project-based education; a Biomimicry Launchpad program and Ray of Hope Prize® for entrepreneurship to bring designs to market; and connects innovators through the Global Biomimicry Network.
Media Contact:
Name: Karl C. Schiller Email; schiller@pheronym.com Phone: 352-283-6967
Q:What are some of the challenges you have faced as a female leader in agriculture and how have you overcome these challenges?
A: “I have been in agriculture all of my life. I work hard because agriculture requires hard work in every aspect. One thing I did see, when you’re a woman, people don’t see your accomplishments. When you’re a man, they immediately recognize them. But when women do the same accomplishment or more, most of the time it goes unnoticed. Even though we don’t do things for recognition, it is nice to be recognized from time to time that we know our efforts are appreciated.
“The way I overcame many challenges is I surrounded myself with very positive and supportive people. Keep reading.
Dr. Kaplan has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. She discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode 
“The Ray of Hope prize committee’s recognition of our bio-inspired technology validates our belief that nature holds the keys to future agricultural innovations,” said Mr. Schiller founder of Pheronym. 