I-Corps: Commercialization of Optimized Microbial Solutions

I-Corps：优化微生物解决方案的商业化

• 批准号: 1442435
• 负责人: Matthew Wallenstein
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1442435&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercialization; Optimized; Microbial; Solutions

Phosphorus (P) is critical for maximizing crop yields because it is an essential nutrient for plant photosynthesis and ATP production, but P availability is limited in most agricultural soils. Rock phosphate mined for fertilizer is a finite resource, and all current P application management strategies are highly inefficient. For instance, 70-90% of P applied to soils can become almost immediately unavailable for plant uptake. As a result, plant-available P can be limiting even in soils that are relatively P-rich and/or heavily fertilized. Farmers are also looking for ways to increase plant nutrient uptake and crop yields with lower cost. The team?s proposed technology provides an innovative approach that can meet these farmer?s needs by maximizing plant nutrient uptake from the soil while allowing for reduced fertilizer inputs.Microbes play a critical role in solubilizing mineral P so that it is available to plants. While there is great potential to improve microbial P solubilization, progress in developing microbial solutions has been largely limited to the identification of single strains through outdated culturing techniques, despite strong demonstrated evidence that microbial consortia are required to maximize P solubilization rates. The primary objective of this project is to advance the development and commercialization of optimized phosphorus (P)-solubilizing microbial consortia. Specifically, the team will demonstrate that: their novel approach rapidly identifies optimized consortia; and their proprietary selection media yields novel P solubilizing microbes that are superior at making soil P available to plants compared to previously identified strains. The project team is interested in developing a start-up company to translate this discovery into a commercial product. They will conduct market research, including extensive interviews with potential users (crop producers) and clients (agricultural corporations) to define value propositions, as well as explore business plan options and potential funding sources.

磷（P）对于最大化农作物产量至关重要，因为它是植物光合作用和ATP产生的必不可少的营养素，但是在大多数农业土壤中，P的可用性受到限制。用于肥料开采的岩石磷酸盐是一种有限资源，当前的所有P应用程序管理策略效率很低。例如，将70-90％的p应用于土壤的P几乎可以立即变得不可用于植物吸收。结果，即使在相对富含P的且/或受精的土壤中，植物可用的P也可以限制。农民还在寻找增加植物养分吸收和成本较低的农作物产量的方法。该团队提出的技术提供了一种创新的方法，可以通过从土壤中最大化植物营养吸收来满足这些农民的需求，同时允许减少肥料的输入。Microbes在溶解矿物P中起着至关重要的作用，从而可以使用植物。尽管有很大的潜力可以改善微生物P溶解度，但开发微生物溶液的进展在很大程度上限于通过过时的培养技术鉴定单菌株，尽管有力证明了微生物联盟需要微生物结合以最大化P溶解率。该项目的主要目的是提高优化磷（P） - 溶解微生物结合的开发和商业化。具体而言，团队将证明：他们的新颖方法迅速识别了优化的财团；与先前鉴定的菌株相比，它们的专有选择培养基产生了新颖的P溶解微生物，它们在使植物可用的土壤P相比。该项目团队有兴趣开发一家初创公司，以将该发现转化为商业产品。他们将进行市场研究，包括对潜在用户（农作物生产商）和客户（农业公司）的广泛采访，以定义价值主张，并探索业务计划选择和潜在的资金来源。