Joyn Bio announces opening of new facility to develop engineered microbes for crop protection

Date:11-04-2021

Joyn Bio, the ag-biotech company engineering microbes for more sustainable agriculture, on Wednesday day announced the opening of a new greenhouse facility that will enable the company's expansion into pest and disease management. The newly constructed greenhouse will support the screening and discovery of breakthrough engineered microbial strains for a broad set of crop protection applications.

As chemicals come under increasing regulatory pressure and face stronger resistance from pests and diseases, there is a rapidly growing need for innovative microbial solutions that offer new modes of action and equivalent performance to synthetic chemicals. Against this backdrop, farmers, regulators and consumers are calling for new, environmentally-friendly products. Joyn's new greenhouse is integral to developing these products and conducting the testing needed to bring them to market.

"From our ongoing work on nitrogen-fixing microbes to our latest innovations on pest and disease management, Joyn is committed to using the latest synthetic biology technologies to create more innovative microbial solutions that benefit both farmers and the environment," said Michael Miille, CEO at Joyn Bio. "Today's greenhouse opening marks an exciting step in our company's efforts to develop a broader set of climate-smart biological products that address the most urgent problems facing farmers around the world."

The new 6048 square feet greenhouse will accelerate Joyn's efforts across the crop protection spectrum. The facility has been designed to ensure the right microclimate for the screening and discovery of highly efficacious engineered microbial strains that can protect against diseases of row and vegetable crops. The greenhouse is partitioned into three highly-insulated segments with independent climate control equipment, enabling testing of several diseases and crops simultaneously with dew conditions as needed. The greenhouse will support both early stage discovery work to identify new microbes and modes of action, as well as later stage screening work to identify and optimize the best performing microbes for field testing and commercial development.

"Over the last four years, our team has built a microbial development platform that can produce engineered microbes with breakthrough properties, starting with our nitrogen-fixing microbes that dramatically reduce plants' needs for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer," said Jon Margolis, CSO at Joyn Bio. "This latest expansion into crop protection is a natural next step for the company, and we are looking forward to providing farmers with the next generation of high performance biologicals in the coming years."