SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is an insect pest control breakthrough for the agricultural industry. Provivi, Inc. (Provivi) intends to develop novel biosynthesis technology for producing insect pheromones, i.e. chemicals that insects use for communication. Pheromone based insect control can fulfill the following unmet needs: (1) safety, biodegradability, and leaving no residues on products (2) not interfering with beneficial insects (e.g. bees and ladybugs), (3) not resulting in insecticide resistance, (4) and serve as a complement to existing pest management strategies. While pheromones have been long recognized for their potential in crop protection, their high synthesis costs have prevented broad adoption. Provivi?s technology aims to enable a dramatically lower cost synthesis of pheromones. This has the potential to change how farmers control damaging insects by adopting pheromone solutions in favor of traditional insecticides. From a commercial perspective, by lowering the cost of synthesis, Provivi pheromone products can immediately enter existing pheromone markets, and ultimately penetrate markets for which currently only traditional insecticides are affordable to farmers.


The objectives of this Phase I research program are (1) the demonstration of a biosynthetic approach to the synthesis of a class of insect pheromones, (2) the identification of enzymes with sufficient activity to warrant further development and, (3) quantifications of the biocatalysis performance for generating a process model of the proposed synthesis route. At the heart of the proposed pheromone synthesis route is a biocatalytic transformation that has not been described in the existing enzyme literature. This project aims to identify enzymes capable of supporting this novel reaction by screening members of enzyme families that are known to catalyze similar reactions. Using the best identified enzyme variant, this project will demonstrate the feasibility of the company's synthesis route by performing a gram-scale synthesis of an in-market insect pheromone. By performing the gram-scale synthesis, it will help to determine the biocatalyst reaction parameters including yield, productivity, product titer and byproduct titers. These parameters will allow the development of a detailed process model of the synthesis route and assess the synthesis cost reduction enabled by the proposed technology.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is a breakthrough in insect control for the agricultural industry. Provivi, Inc. intends to develop biosynthesis technology for producing insect pheromones, with a dramatic reduction in the cost of goods sold compared to existing syntheses. This will enable the use of pheromones beyond niche markets such as fruits and nuts: the target market for Provivi?s pheromone products are large acreage row crops. By introducing pheromone-based control as an inexpensive alternative in these markets, we are meeting a growing demand as conventional insecticides are becoming increasingly incapable of protecting crops due to insect resistance, regulatory constraints, and detrimental effects on beneficial insects. The societal and environmental benefits of using pheromones are numerous: pheromones are considered the safest possible insecticides with respect to human food consumption as well as environmental impact. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has characterized them as low risk. Our pheromone products will benefit consumers by creating a safer food supply with lower chemical residues, growers by introducing an effective and novel pest control solution and the environment by reducing the chemical exposure to the ecosystem. The objectives of this Phase II research project are to improve the selectivity and productivity of our prototype biocatalyst to target commercial performance, and to demonstrate pheromone synthesis from a cheap feedstock using this biocatalyst. PRovivi's proprietary biocatalyst utilizes a novel monooxygenase to catalyze a reaction not found in nature. The research product of this project will expand the scientific knowledge for this class of biocatalysts. Additionally, since this class of biocatalysts has not been optimized for commercial viability for the specific reaction of interest, this research program could provide impactful research learnings to achieve target commercial performance. These learnings include but are not limited to changes in the biocatalyst physiology, metabolic pathways and potential stress responses. This research could provide valuable knowledge for both commercial and academic biocatalysis research that utilize this class of biocatalysts.