Switch Bioworks has announced a collaboration with Bayer Crop Science to explore its genetic switch technology for agricultural biologicals, with nitrogen fixation among the initial priorities. The company announcement, carried by CropLife Fertilizer, centres on engineered microbes designed to produce nitrogen fertilizer at plant roots. The stated aim is to develop biological products that could offer growers additional crop nutrition options.
The technology targets a technical challenge described in the announcement: microbes engineered to produce nitrogen can have difficulty establishing themselves on roots, while strains that colonise roots successfully may deliver insufficient nitrogen. Switch’s approach separates those functions. Its microbes, originally developed at Stanford, are designed to establish on the root before activating nitrogen production, rather than producing nitrogen continuously.
According to the announcement reported by CropLife Fertilizer, the programmed microbes produced five times as much nitrogen as always-on control strains in grow-room studies. That comparison relates to controlled studies, rather than reported field performance. The source provides no field-trial results or figures for crop yields, fertilizer replacement rates or grower costs.
Switch founder and chief executive Dr Tim Schnabel described the Bayer collaboration as a significant step for the company and highlighted Bayer’s experience with nitrogen performance in maize. Benoit Hartmann, Bayer Crop Science’s Insights, Innovation & Partnerships Lead, said partnerships with biological technology developers combine their specialist expertise with Bayer’s capabilities in product development, formulation, field testing and commercialisation, alongside its knowledge of crop genetics. He presented biologicals as another option for growers managing variable conditions and crop nutrition programmes.
Separately, the announcement said Switch had obtained authorisation from the US Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency for trials of its engineered microbial fertilizer, with field work under way at multiple locations across the US Midwest. It also reported more recent approvals from Brazil’s National Technical Biosafety Commission, CTNBio. Switch said seven patent families protect the genetic switch technology underpinning its programmable biology platform. No commercial launch timetable or financial terms for the Bayer collaboration were disclosed in the report.