the $34.5 million raised by RTP-based AgBiome, a startup scouring soil and plant samples in search of beneficial microbes, according to AgFunder. Meanwhile, Novozymes (NASDAQ OMX: [[ticker:NZYM]]) and Monsanto (NYSE: [[ticker:MON]]) are three years into an alliance discovering and developing agricultural microbials found in soil, which has led to the construction of a new research facility near RTP. The companies expect that their first product, a microbial seed coating intended to improve corn yields, will be market-ready next year.
A logical place for the new institute to foster industry and university ties is the Plant Soil Microbial Community Consortium based at North Carolina State University. Formed last fall, the consortium brings companies together with academics to pursue projects for industry. Ignazio Carbone, a professor of plant pathology and director of the consortium, is aware of the soil research occurring in the nearby labs of AgBiome and Novozymes. But he says companies can’t answer all of the questions about the soil microbiome, nor do they want to. As companies race to bring beneficial microbes to market, they leave gaps in the understanding of how a community of microorganisms works together.
Carbone says the NC State consortium can fill in the gaps left by companies, and improve their overall knowledge of how a particular microbe affects a plant and interacts with other microorganisms. That’s important because the activity of one microorganism could have the effect of enhancing or suppressing another. “It makes sense to take a community approach to microbiology,” Carbone says.
Though the consortium is relatively new, its formation was years in the making. It is part of NC State’s Center for Integrated Fungal Research, which was founded in 2000. Eight years ago, the center made a strategic decision to expand beyond fungi and explore the broader community of microorganisms, Carbone says. With the consortium, the university is breaking from the old academic model of applying for grants to support basic research. Carbone says NC State’s work can go further by collaborating with industry.
So far, Novozymes, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, and BASF are the industry members of the consortium. Each pays $50,000 in annual dues, which finances research projects that the companies select. That work will be done at university labs, but depending on the project, NC State researchers could work alongside industry scientists, Carbone says.
NC State has already fielded inquiries from out-of-state agbio companies seeking access to its microbial strains. That’s not likely to be granted, however. The consortium’s work is pre-competitive, meaning all members share in whatever the researchers learn, but a company must be a consortium member in order to get first crack at using whatever the researchers find.
NC State scientists are currently working on two consortium projects—one studying the role of the microbiome in maize disease resistance, and a second studying the microbiome of rice seeds and seedlings. For its part, the Soil Health Institute will take a broad view of potential projects studying soil health, and will consider both basic and applied research, Honeycutt says. The institute would also like to identify and establish indicators for soil health. Tracking those indicators will help measure how soils are changing over time, he says.
The Soil Health Institute has already met with potential backers. Honeycutt expects the institute will start reviewing proposals and awarding grants within the next year, though he says it’s too early to say how many grants it will award and how much each grant will be. But he says grant recipients won’t be limited to academic research. Nonprofit organizations and companies, including agtech startups, could apply without geographic restrictions.
“We want the best in the world, it doesn’t need to be just someone in the U.S.,” Honeycutt says. “We want the best and the brightest to be able to work on this.”
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Luana Campello via a Creative Commons license.
