November 9, 2023

photo credit: Osmo

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

The power of scent to attract or repel both humans and animals is a fascinating and complex phenomenon. Scent plays a crucial role in communication, navigation, and survival for many species. 

Understanding the science and art of scent can lead to the development of effective attractants and repellents, contributing to a diverse range of fields, not the least of which is pest control.

Launched in Boston, Massachusetts, in early 2023 with $60 million in Series A funding led by Lux Capital and Google Ventures, Osmo links machine learning, data science, psychophysics, olfactory neuroscience, electrical engineering, and chemistry to take a multi-disciplinary approach to digitizing scent. 

What began in the flavor and fragrance space has evolved to work in agriculture and public health to develop solutions that help grow more food, ward off insects, identify food spoilage, detect diseases earlier, and track pandemics faster. 

Upon Osmo’s launch in January 2023, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invested $5 million in capital to back the company. Now, the company announced that the Foundation has invested another $3.5 million, bringing total backing from that single source to $8.5 million. 

“With generous support from the Gates Foundation, we’re using our AI Scent Platform to analyze this vast chemical space and discover novel agents that modify the behavior of insects to prevent disease and are effective, safe, and affordable for both human and animal health globally,” said Alex Wiltschko, CEO, Osmo. 

Understanding the importance of scent to insects and how it can be manipulated to control their behavior is crucial in agricultural, public health, and environmental contexts.

Agricultural pests are the root cause of social, economic, and health damage that account for $70 billion in crop losses in the U.S. alone. However, not only are traditional pesticides broadly harmful to the beneficial insects that happen to be present, but are also significantly harmful to our environment and human health – all while the targeted pests continue to become more resistant to our tools at-hand.

Currently, the global insecticides market is dominated by synthetic chemicals, accounting for 94 percent of all control solutions – representing a projected market value of $27 billion, but one that pigeonholes the entire food system with few choices. 

This lack of choices has, on a global scale, led to more than 600 species of pests having developed a resistance to traditional agro-chemicals on some level – sometimes to entire “families” of pesticides, cutting a swath through what farmers have available to work with to protect their crops.

The stakes are high, but so is the potential for products that approach the challenge in a new and sustainable way.

Using scent as a tool in pest control is not only environmentally friendly but also highly targeted, as it specifically addresses the behavior of the pest species in question. When implemented effectively, scent-based pest control methods can reduce the reliance on chemical pesticides and help maintain ecological balance while protecting crops and other resources.

“Osmo’s science revealed a surprising link between insect and human olfaction, with our map of odor predicting how molecules smell to humans as well as insects,” said Wiltschko.

“Our mission to digitize olfaction will have many potential paths to make the world healthier and happier. All of us at Osmo are particularly excited about using our map to design totally new molecules to stop the spread of insect-borne disease.”

This funding follows a proof-of-concept pilot that was published as a research paper in late 2022. In its current project, Osmo is building on the proof-of-concept pilot with the primary goals of:

~ Scaling up the previous research at least tenfold by incorporating more data and more tests on more compounds;

~ Using machine learning to discover promising candidate molecules that are novel, inexpensive, and chemically diverse;

~ Developing predictive models to incorporate real-world constraints associated with those molecules, including cost, spatial range, biodegradability, toxicity, and human odor perception;

~ Synthesizing, testing, and optimizing novel candidate repellents for advancement to human trials and ecological impact assessments;

~ And leveraging this repellent model to demonstrate the efficacy of machine learning-driven discovery of novel mosquito attractants that outperform existing lures.

The company’s insect control platform design heavily leverages recent advances in machine learning and generative AI that can evaluate billions of molecules for their potential effectiveness and safety in a matter of seconds. 

Osmo stated that its work in this direction is part of the company’s mission to give computers a sense of smell with the goal of improving wellbeing. Core to this endeavor is a “map of odor” built by the Osmo team to predict what a molecule smells like from its structure. 

“Osmo’s science revealed a surprising link between insect and human olfaction, with our map of odor predicting how molecules smell to humans as well as insects,” said Wiltschko. “Our mission to digitize olfaction will have many potential paths to make the world healthier and happier.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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