Pheronym Begins Scaling Pest Bio-Control Solution at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Pheronym, an ag-biotech pest management company that got its start at UF Innovate | Accelerate’s incubator The Hub, has begun scaling up production of its patented NemastimTM 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.”