The varroa mite is the leading cause of bee colony collapse. The current solutions aren’t good enough, or the problem wouldn’t exist. In the U.S., at least 45% of commercial colonies are infected with varroa; between 2023 and 2024, 55.1% died off. Unless we want food shortages and price spikes, the world needs a biopesticide […]

The global transition to net-zero emissions hinges on the mining of critical minerals, yet copper and lithium production, projected to grow 30% and 465% by 2050, will still fall short of meeting demand. Mining faces daunting challenges: 70% of copper remains locked in low-grade ores, and extracting it is increasingly uneconomical due to the massive […]

The world depends on insulation that wastes up to 60% of heating and cooling energy, is heavy and bulky, and is 80% derived from petrochemicals. There’s been little innovation in this $65 billion industry, which still sells thick glass, sand, and plastic composites invented nearly a century ago. Aerogels—the lightest, thinnest, and best insulating materials […]

The $5 trillion bioeconomy aims to produce next-generation food, fuels, and fabrics, but it faces a critical bottleneck: a shortage of affordable, carbon-negative feedstocks. Global demand for sugars and cellulose will soon outstrip supply, threatening cost and scalability challenges for industries like precision fermentation, bioplastics, upcycled textiles, and green building materials. Meanwhile, 2 billion tons […]

To treat metastatic cancer, a radiotherapeutic must deliver a potent isotope to the tumor and keep it there long enough to kill the cancer, but clear quickly enough to avoid harming healthy tissue. So far, few radiotherapeutics have managed to meet both requirements.   Boston-based Asta Bio aims to overcome these challenges with 211-Astatine—the most druggable […]

The $10 billion precision agriculture industry is struggling to power the millions of sensors it needs to improve crop yields, reduce costs, and support food security amidst climate change. Farms are usually remote and lacking in energy infrastructure, but sensors reliant on single-use batteries or solar systems are prohibitively expensive because they require maintenance. Someone […]

The world’s $6.2 trillion in crop production depends on domesticated plants that have been optimized for yield, not resilience. Their defensive mechanisms against pests have been silenced, and in their stead, chemical pesticides have protected crops, ending hunger in much of the world. In a changing climate, however, pests are spreading and evolving quicker than […]

Medical researchers have genetically modified T cells to recognize and attack cancers, but they’ve run into some obstacles. Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) therapies are expensive ($373-475K per treatment), ineffective against solid tumors, potentially neurotoxic, and require gene editing if they’re sourced from healthy donors. That severely limits their potential for commercialization.  Tinkeso Therapeutics is […]

Companies working in precision fermentation have ambitious plans to upcycle organic waste, but most struggle with high costs and poor scalability. They rely on a few engineered bacterial strains and must operate in short batches to keep them healthy and productive. That means stopping and restarting their bioreactors frequently, which introduces downtime and a higher […]

Cell-based chocolate. Addresses deforestation in equatorial regions.

Founded by one of Turkey’s most famous young fashion designers, Gozen Bioworks is a biomaterials company that has created the world’s strongest and softest bio-based animal-free leather to date. Their latest product (Xylozen™) is twice as strong as animal leather, impossibly thin, and soft enough to replace lambskin in luxury tiers. The breakthrough in their […]

In the U.S. alone we use 12 to 15 billion pounds of food packaging film annually, but less than 5% is recycled. Moreover, these plastic films contain PFAS (aka, “forever chemicals”) that leach into foods and have been linked to serious health risks. So far, sustainable alternatives to petrochemical film are either too expensive or […]

The global mining industry produces 100 billion tons of waste every year. Often, these waste streams represent environmental hazards, added costs and liabilities for operations, and contain valuable minerals.  Athos Bio is developing bio-mineralization technology that mitigates this waste, transforming it into a medium for permanent carbon storage and the recovery of valuable mineral commodities. […]

Every year, 2 million people develop corneal blindness, but only about 200,000 undergo a corneal transplantation to regain their vision. Almost 13 million people are on waiting lists for donor tissue, and even if they obtain it, the rejection rate for corneal replacements climbs from 10% in the first two years to almost 50% by […]