Insect pest control, which is essential for food and crop production, typically relies on chemical insecticides. At Yngvi Bio, we repurpose bacterial contractile injection systems as biodegradable insecticides, offering ecological safety, target specificity and a scalable path to market.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by InnoExplorer (grant 4293-00017A), Villum Foundation Spin-Outs Denmark (grant 00035078) and Copenhagen University Proof-of Concept funding (grant 521-0795/21-7000) to E.M.S.R. and K.V.H., as well as the NFF Synergy (grant NNF23OC0086059) and DFF green research grants (4307-00218B) to K.V.H. in the early proof-of-concept development and technology validation of the Yngvi Bio platform.
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E.M.S.R. and K.V.H. are co-founders of Yngvi Bio ApS and have received financial support related to this work from BioInnovation Institute (BII), Innovationsfonden, Villum Foundation and Novo Nordisk Foundation Synergy. EMSR is inventor on the patent application PCT/EP2023/068102.
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40% of the global crop yield are lost to pests and diseases annually: https://www.fao.org/plant-production-protection/about/en
2023 IBMA survey: https://ibma-global.org/press-releases/biocontrol-market-now-worth-over-1-6-billion-euro-but-eu-policies-a-bottleneck-to-unlocking-full-potential
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–27: https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/cap-overview/cap-2023-27_en
European Commission (EC) has signalled intent to modernize the approval pathway for biologics: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1570
Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive: https://food.ec.europa.eu/plants/pesticides/sustainable-use-pesticides_en
The European Biosolutions Coalition: https://www.eubiocoalition.eu/
The International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA): https://ibma-global.org/ibma-policy-asks
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Steiner-Rebrova, E.M., Halberg, K.V. Eco-friendly insect control in crop production. Nat Rev Bioeng 3, 721–723 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-025-00332-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-025-00332-3
