jbacher

4 ms·

1.
by jbacher 7y ago
Yes. There are other companies that seek to preserve freshness. Our products specifically target fungal infections.
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by jbacher 7y ago
Thanks! In the US, >50% if fruits and vegetables are wasted. (Not all because of fungal rot, of course.)
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by jbacher 7y ago
I'm not aware of these. There are a number of meat-replacement startup companies, developing replacements for fish, chicken, beef, etc., either by formulating products with protein or animal cells, or with vegetable protein that is for
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by jbacher 7y ago
Interesting question! We're not currently granting licenses, but may be interested in research collaborations in the future. We did find one very interesting mystery, three morphotypes of a single bacteria (as determined by 16S seque
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by jbacher 7y ago
The types of microbes used in our products naturally occur in the soil. Our products pass through the required registration processes to ensure safety.
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by jbacher 7y ago
Thanks for the good wishes! We can track changes in the micro-ecosystems by sequencing the soil or root metagenomes. We aren't doing this yet, but it's on the path forward.
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by jbacher 7y ago
From the pub you reference, it looks like some fungi can be beneficial. But many are not - many fungi cause wilts, rots, etc. We only use naturally-occurring microbes, without genetic engineering. We focus on the unit of the cell, rather
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by jbacher 7y ago
I'm not familiar with Permaculture, but yes, that sounds right.
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by jbacher 7y ago
Yes, it's an uncommon yeast - not Saccharomyces. And, yes, the product is meant to 'bring forward' the effects from these members of the soil microbiome, from minor players to treatments at higher concentration. The microbial
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by jbacher 7y ago
These are soil isolates - no generic engineering of the strains. One of the lead product active ingredients includes both the bacterium and the yeast.
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by jbacher 7y ago
The microbes we're using as products come from the soil. The tech to identify them uses understanding the interaction between microbes, so that we can thoughtfully determine which microbes are best suited for a product - we can exclude
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by jbacher 7y ago
In grapes, our lead consortium prevented botrytis, a key fungal pathogen, to a level statistically indistinguishable from chemical pesticides. Biological don't typically do that well. We anticipate benefits that we have yet to prove: h
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by jbacher 7y ago
We've done over 25 field trials, including post-harvest trials. The first consortia we've assembled is just two members, one bacteria and one yeast. We envision that it can get pretty complex (but probably won't include multi
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Launch HN: Boost Biomes (YC S19) – Microbes for better crop yields, shelf life
75 points by jbacher 7y ago|31 comments