October 26, 2021

By Michelle Pelletier Marshall, Global AgInvesting Media

In this new GAI News feature, we will highlight up and coming agtech companies and startups as they embark on new journeys to change the trajectory of agricultural production in an effort to feed the growing global population in ground-breaking and innovative ways.

We hope you enjoy these quick peeks inside some of the sectors’ most creative and forward-thinking entrepreneurs and disruptive technologies.

Pebble Labs, established in 2017 and based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, is on a mission to deliver safe and effective biological solutions that sustainably address the most significant challenges for global food production though our patented technology platform. These solutions are precision engineered to safely and effectively provide RNA-based protection against the diseases and pests that harass agricultural production around the globe.

Led by newly named CEO Dr. Rebecca White, Pebble Labs was recently named the winner of the Better Nutrition category at the 2021 World Food Forum for its use of probiotics as the delivery vehicle for RNA or other bioactives to harness a plant or animal’s natural protection processes against pests and diseases.

Dr. White took a break from her research to respond to our three questions:

1). Tell us about your company.

Pebble Labs was established in 2017 to develop a novel, sustainable, and broadly application biological platform focused on plant and animal health for food production.  We’re located in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and our team is made up of experts in microbiology, computational biology and bioinformatics, agronomy, aquaculture, RNA biology, and molecular genetics.

We employ a novel approach to biologicals for crop protection, using microbes to deliver RNAi.

2). Tell us about your technology and what changes it will bring about.

Pebble Labs believes that the future of food production hinges on safe, effective biological solutions for sustainably protecting crop yields and quality. Our first products target viral diseases in aquaculture and agriculture.

We use naturally occurring microbes from crops – either plant or animal – and engineer them to deliver RNA-based protection against the diseases and pests we are targeting.

We isolate, identify, and characterize microbes from the microbiome of the crop of interest and then engineer these microbes to express our precisely designed RNA molecules. Our computational biology and bioinformatics platform allows us to design RNA molecules with high target efficacy and extremely low chances of off target impacts. The result, Directed Biotics^TM, is put back into the crop as a living biofactory for RNA-based protection. RNA is continuously and systemically produced, giving the crop protection against the target disease or pest.

3). Tell us why the GAI investment and agribusiness audience should be interested…

Diseases and pests cause up to 40 percent of yield losses every year, and detrimentally affect quality, making food potentially unsellable. The current solutions for addressing disease and pests are typically traditional chemicals or antibiotics, which have long-term environmental and health and safety impacts. For many viruses that affect food production, there are simply no solutions available.

In order to feed the increasing human population on less land and less resources, we need new solutions to combat losses to diseases and pests. Advanced biologicals like Directed Biotics^TM, which of course need funding and industry support to bring to fruition, offer unique but broadly applicable ways to address these issues.

– Michelle Pelletier Marshall is contributing editor and author for HighQuest Partners’ GAI News and Oilseed & Grain News, and managing editor for its WIA Today blog. Additionally, she is the company’s PR/Media Manager. She can be reached at marshall@highquestpartners.com.