Ignacio Martinze, founding president and CEO of Invaio Sciences, which aims to support beneficial ... [+]
As a longtime organic gardener, I have a love-hate relationship with bugs. Ladybugs, spiders and bees are my best friends; flea beetles, white flies and cabbage moths are my mortal enemies.
Indeed, trying to effectively control insect populations without dangerous pesticides is the holy grail for anyone who cares about the environment and the future of our food supply. Equally important is improving the health of beneficial insects, including honey bees and other pollinators that are vulnerable to poisons meant to kill the bad bugs. Some studies have linked colony collapse disorder, where a majority of worker bees abandon their hives, to the use of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.
So I was intrigued to hear about the new startup Invaio Sciences, which was just launched by Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge, Mass. The investment firm, with $4 billion under management, develops, launches and grows its own life sciences companies and holds a majority stake in them.
The science gets a bit geeky here, and I’m no scientist. But simply put, Invaio’s technology, still in the R & D phase, aims to support the health of good bugs and disrupt the reproduction of the bad ones, thereby vastly reducing the need for pesticides in large-scale agriculture.
Invaio researchers plan to do this by manipulating the insects’ microbiomes. Just like people and plants, insects house an ecosystem of microbes that play a vital role in their health. That insect microbiome is housed in a specialized organ you’ve probably never heard of. It’s called the obligate microbial symbiont, or OMS, which helps feed the insect by providing critical amino acids and vitamins.
“We envision a future in agriculture that is more respectful to the environment and geared to less use of chemicals,” Ignacio Martinez, the founding president and CEO of Invaio and a general partner of Flagship, tells me.
An orange that shows signs of citrus greening, a devastating bacterial disease that is carried by ... [+]
The U.S. alone uses over a billion pounds of pesticides every year, and those harmful chemicals hurt the quality of the food supply and human health, as well as the environment, Martinez adds.
As part of Invaio’s integrated solutions, the company is building a digital platform that draws from machine learning, artificial intelligence, data sciences, plant sciences and environmental sciences. AI will help predict which molecules are likely to be effective to either support or hinder insect health.
Consider the example of citrus greening disease, a bacterial infection that is devastating Florida citrus crops and is carried by an insect called the Asian citrus psyllid. It turns citrus leaves yellow and renders the fruit green, bitter and misshapen.
To tackle this presently incurable scourge, Invaio has developed a miniature device with 3D-printed injection tips that delivers small targeted amounts of antimicrobials into a plant’s vascular system. When insects attack the tree, they ingest the biomolecules that affect their microbiome and, in turn, their ability to reproduce. The company hopes to have a product on the market in 2021.
Invaio is also working on microbiome-focused approaches to control stink bugs, aphids and white flies, says Martinez. And, by the end of 2021, the company also plans to roll out a product to support the nutrition and health of honey bees, which are so vital to crop pollination.
It’s impossible to judge Invaio’s prospects for success at this early stage, but here’s hoping their technology can make a difference.
