Pheronym begins scaling pest bio-control solution at Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory

Pheronym, an agbiotech pest management company, has begun scaling up production of its patented Nemastim™ pest bio-control solution at Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, through a development agreement that provides access to key fermentation and quality control systems. Pheronym’s founders, Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Karl Cameron Schiller, were named Activate Fellows this year, and joined the entrepreneurial research program’s Berkeley community, hosted at Berkeley Lab’s Cyclotron Road Division. The fellowship provides a two-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Berkeley Lab, through which Pheronym is accessing laboratory and production infrastructure that is vital to its success.

“This agreement marks a key milestone toward scaling our solution for commercial agriculture,” said Dr. Fatma Kaplan, CEO of Pheronym. “This CRADA with Cyclotron Road will leverage our significant progress to bring to market the first commercial nematode pheromone production creating an effective approach to pest management that will be better for people and our planet.”

Biopesticides are the fastest-growing segment of agricultural pest-control technologies, and Nemastim™ improves the effectiveness of beneficial nematodes in the soil.

“Pheronym has developed a highly effective solution for pest bio-control,” said Rachel Slaybaugh, Director of Cyclotron Road. “Our goal is to help them get to scale so farmers and consumers can all benefit from their sustainable, planet-friendly solution.”

Chemical & Engineering News named Pheronym an agtech leader and it won the 2021 Applied Chemical Ecology Award from the International Society of Chemical Ecology. “Fatma and Karl are building a path for farmers to transition away from conventional pesticides while advancing biopesticide science,” says David Anton, Activate Berkeley’s Managing Director. “They join science entrepreneurs in the Activate Fellowship who are accelerating the transition to a sustainable, resilient, and equitable economy.”

How Pheronym’s Breakthrough Works

Pheronym’s natural product breakthrough increases the effectiveness of beneficial nematodes' ability to control pests in agriculture. While nematodes are regularly used in pest management, commercially available nematodes do not disperse efficiently or as effectively as they can when they are applied to a field. This is because the insect target is mobile, so nematodes, which become dormant quickly, need to always be actively moving to seek an insect pest host. Pheronym’s approach directly impacts this problem – significantly improving the mobility and aggressiveness of the nematodes making them more effective in killing pests. Pheronym also has shown that a different kind of pheromone can control plant-parasitic nematodes, which harm crops, by repelling these yield-sapping pests from the plant roots.