What's the Problem?

Plant bacterial diseases like HLB (citrus greening), Tree Killer Xylella, Citrus Canker, Bacterial spot, Fire Blight, and many more, cause huge losses in fruit & vegetable production and postharvest stages (36 Bi USD/year lost). There is a wide variety of bacterial pathogens affecting different crops distributed worldwide, all being treated with the same chemicals. So far, there is no cure. Copper-based chemicals and antibiotics have been until now the only choice to treat and prevent plant bacterial diseases. This has generated bacterial resistance, which means that year by year these chemicals become less efficient. They are harmful for the environment, human and animal health. Restrictions to these chemicals are increasing globally. Even worse, these chemicals are broad-spectrum, affecting soil microbiomes. And if soil microbiomes die, nothing grows.

How are they Solving it?

Syocin is developing bio-bactericides based on sophisticated proteins that can protect and cure fruit and vegetable crops from bacterial diseases in a highly-precise way. Each protein developed by Syocin has the precision of an arrow, targeting only the bacteria that they want to eliminate. That precision makes them highly effective and preserves soil microbiomes, hence soil health. Syocin is pioneering bactericidal-customized bio-solutions for crop protection completed in months, not years. Syocin is developing its proprietary Platform, based on synthetic biology, computing-design and automation that is capable of designing and building each bactericidal protein in months, totally from scratch. The platform enables them to develop solutions faster and with less money. To show this, the development of their second engineered solution took 32% less time and 18% less money than the first one. IP: They are also developing their own IP portfolio based on their Synthetic Biology-based Platform. Customer agreements: In the next month they are starting field trials in the real world, with a collaboration agreement with an important global citrus grower company. Food safety: Since Syocin is capable of developing solutions to target any bacteria, they are also investigating a solution to be applied post harvest on fresh food like green leaves, to eliminate bacteria affecting food safety, like E. coli. Investments/Accelerator Program: Recently, Syocin has been selected as one of the top 12 of nearly 700 startups worldwide to be part of THRIVE AgriFood Accelerator Program VII Cohort by SVG Ventures.

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