Toronto-based startup Molagri has raised $5.8 million in pre-seed and seed funding to develop a new generation of “precision biopesticides” designed to target specific insect pests and adapt as they develop resistance.
The tech—which will initially target pests in tree nuts and tree fruits—is designed to address two longstanding challenges in crop protection: the development of resistance to existing pesticides and the unintended damage caused by broad-spectrum products, says cofounder Zaky Hassan.
“Farmers shouldn’t have to worry about resistance, the same way you don’t think about which flu strain is going around when you get a flu shot. We want to be the team that designs the next product before resistance becomes a problem in the field.”
The seed round was led by Convective Capital, with participation from Superorganism, Y Combinator, Julian Capital and angel investors including Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham.
How it works
The tech platform—developed by Zaky Hassan and Min Jin—is based on engineered non-infectious virus-like particles (VLPs).
The particles are designed to be ingested by target pests, with proteins on their surface engineered to recognize and bind to particular receptors in the insect’s gut.
Once ingested by the pest the VLPs get inside the target pest’s cells and deliver genetic instructions (mRNA) that prompt the insect’s own cellular machinery to produce a toxin that kills the pest. Beneficial insects such as pollinators lack the receptor, so aren’t impacted.
The platform is modular, so Molagri can adapt the targeting and payload as pests evolve instead of starting from scratch for each new problem, although Hassan acknowledges that the company is still exploring what this might mean from a regulatory perspective.
To achieve this specificity, Molagri is drawing on the founders’ expertise in structural biology and protein engineering, studying the molecular structures of receptors in both target pests and beneficial insects.
The company has already used cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine the structure of a receptor in honeybees, enabling it to identify differences that could be exploited to develop targeting proteins that bind to pests but not pollinators, for example.
This approach, if successful, could enable growers to control particular pests without indiscriminately killing beneficial insects, although Molagri has yet to demonstrate this selectivity in commercial field conditions, he acknowledged.
‘Updating’ pesticides as resistance develops
Rather than developing an entirely new pesticide every time an insect evolves resistance, Molagri hopes to retain the same underlying delivery system while swapping out the components responsible for targeting pests or killing them.
For example, if an insect develops a mutation that prevents an insecticide from working, the company could potentially replace that payload with one that acts through a different mechanism.
Equally, if the pest develops resistance by changing the receptor used by the particle to enter its cells, Molagri could redesign the targeting protein to recognize the modified receptor.
Molagri ultimately wants to monitor insect populations for emerging resistance mutations, using molecular analysis and protein engineering to anticipate which changes could compromise its products and design alternatives before resistance becomes widespread.
The platform could also enable the company to develop different insecticidal payloads for the same pest, potentially allowing growers to rotate between different modes of action to reduce the risk of resistance.
That said, the business model will depend partly on how regulators approach the technology, he acknowledged. If each updated version must undergo an entirely new pesticide registration process, much of the benefit of being able to rapidly redesign products could be lost.
Molagri therefore hopes to explore a regulatory approach under which modifications to an established platform could be reviewed without requiring the same process as an entirely new pesticide.
Starting with tree nuts and tree fruits
Potential initial targets include navel orangeworm, a major pest of almonds and pistachios, and codling moth, a significant problem in apples, said Hassan. Longer term, however, he also sees opportunities in commodity crops, including corn and canola.
The plan is to manufacture the virus-like particles using yeast fermentation. However, the technology remains at an early stage, said Hassan, who says Molagri has determined molecular structures of relevant insect receptors and is now developing its first virus-like particles for testing.
It has also secured an initial letter of intent from a grower, although commercial performance, manufacturing costs, formulation stability and efficacy in the field have yet to be established.
The company recently expanded into a Toronto laboratory with biomanufacturing and tissue culture facilities and filed a provisional patent covering its targeted VLP delivery system.
The new funding will support recruitment of scientists specializing in insect biology, virology and VLP production, as Molagri works to advance the technology toward practical applications.
The business model is still being developed, with licensing to established crop protection players among the options for its first products.
“Pesticide resistance is a slow-moving disaster for global food security, and the tools farmers have today weren’t built for a world where pests adapt this quickly,” said Bill Clerico, managing partner at Convective Capital.
“Zaky and Min are bringing the precision of modern protein engineering to agriculture. We think this platform can give growers a durable, targeted alternative to broad-spectrum chemicals.”
Further reading:
Renaissance Bioscience unveils yeast-derived VLP platform for next-gen RNAi biopesticides
