OneOne expects to use those strains to move to field trials and minimize its time-to-market
OneOne Biosciences, a French startup building a comprehensive suite of agricultural microbial solutions for farmers, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced a new partnership. This collaboration will leverage Ginkgo’s robust ag biologicals infrastructure, biotechnological expertise, and Strain Optimization Services to accelerate OneOne’s research and product development in agricultural microbial solutions.
OneOne believes that existing crop fertilization and protection products need a major upgrade — conventional agrochemicals are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, and large-scale pollution. Farmers also face high price volatility and supply chain issues.
OneOne’s mission is to equip growers with bio-based agricultural inputs characterized by both exceptional effectiveness and longevity. Central to this mission is OneOne’s development of a novel, universal solution for production and delivery of ag microbials through the OneOne Multiplier™, a user-friendly “espresso machine-type” device that amplifies microbes at the point of use. Users can insert OneOne Livepods™ into the Multiplier to aseptically prepare microbials, which can then be applied directly to crops.
Livepods are designed to come loaded with microbes that are tailored for specific-use cases — e.g. nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, crop protection, drought resistance, carbon sequestration, and more. This fresh approach, combined with other species-independent innovative components, aims to be forward compatible with future data-based product personalization, parametrized by individual crop and soil characteristics.
OneOne’s initial focus is on developing a Livepod for nitrogen fixation, a roughly $100 billion market. OneOne will work with Ginkgo for in vitro and in planta assays to test OneOne’s concept. In a second phase, Ginkgo plans to use its Strain Optimization Services and ultra high throughput encapsulated screening to provide optimized strains for nitrogen fixation. The strains may then progress to field trials and regulatory preparations before commercialization.
