The North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s AgBiotech Initiative is expanding the 2015 Ag Biotech Entrepreneurial Showcase May 19 to include presentations from nine firms, including crop biotech and animal health companies from across the greater Eastern United States.

The showcase companies include two that put tobacco research to positive uses and one that increases indoor food production by using LED lights that “communicate” with plants.

North Carolina, the complete ecosystem for agricultural biotechnology with environments spanning the mountains to the coast, will convene an expected 180 ag biotech entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and technology scouts.

The nine showcase companies are:

AgBiome (http://agbiome.com/), a North Carolina company. In the first 19 months of its lab operations the company has isolated, characterized, and sequenced over 24,000 novel bacterial strains, and discovered more than 800 potential insect control genes.

aperiomics, (http://aperiomics.com/), a company revolutionizing pathogen testing with a proprietary platform and is focused on pathogens of public and animal health importance.

ConidioTec of Pennsylvania, which developed a patent-pending pesticide to control and prevent bed bugs.
Previously used for control of horticultural and agricultural pests, Beauveria is natural and completely harmless to humans.

Edison Agrosciences, (http://www.edisonagrosciences.com/) an NC company, is using biotechnology to enable production in alternative crops like natural rubber which is essential for the manufacture of thousands of products including tires and cannot be replaced with synthetics.

NellOne Therapeutics of Tennessee, is using the novel NEWLL1 protein to regenerate tissues to restore healthy, normal lives of horses with severe tissue injuries like deep wounds, torn tendons and ligaments, especially in the limbs. These injuries would typically end the promising careers of high value performance horses, beloved by their owners, as they are hard to heal, costly to treat, lead to scarring and permanent disability or death.

PhytoSynthetix (http://phytosynthetix.com/) of Georgia, offers a solution to reduce the costs of indoor food production using a biological feedback system that allows LED grow lights to communicate with plants increasing food production while reducing energy consumption.

SynShark (http://www.synshark.com/) of Texas and North Carolina, has developed a new approach to renewable specialty chemicals, through $5 mllion in ARPA-E funding to Texas A&M University. Its technology is a superior production route, which takes pressure off a vulnerable ocean catch. This route was derived through a novel approach to photosynthesis efficiency and storage in tobacco.

TytonBioEnergy Systems (http://tytonbio.com/) of Virginia and North Carolina, is utilizing a specialized tobacco technology platform to produce a variety of chemical building blocks for biofuels and other industrial and agricultural products. One acre of Tyton’s patented non-smoking tobacco outperforms corn, soy and other cellulosic feedstocks. Tyton is committed to delivering cost-competitive products while protecting the planet.

For more information see: http://www.ncbiotech.org/agbiotechshowcase