Toxicity testing of agricultural bio-control agent confirms its safety

MILWAUKEE – T3 BioScience, LLC (T3) has successfully completed its first independent tests assessing the environmental toxicity of RejuAgro, its novel agricultural bio-control agent.

RejuAgro protects crops from infection by harmful bacteria and fungus while preventing overuse of antibiotics in farming. It inhibits nine globally devastating crop diseases among seven different crops at efficiency levels that are comparable to or better than antibiotics and chemicals.

“RejuAgro is becoming a highly potent agricultural solution for farmers around the world to manage devastating diseases that are destroying entire crops and threatening livelihoods,” said Ching-Hong Yang, T3’s chief scientific officer and a professor of biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Conducted by Taiwan’s Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute, the results are accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The company plans its final commercial product formulation by the end of 2021 and EPA submission of their RejuAgro product by the third quarter 2022.

RejuAgro is formulated to promote the growth of innocuous microbes from nature to obstruct the infectious disease-causing microbes. It is effective against diseases that affect apples and pears (such as fireblight), citrus fruits, potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, walnuts and rice.

“Because there currently is not an environmentally sustainable product that provides adequate disease control, farmers are forced to continue working with harmful chemicals and antibiotics that still do not offer optimal disease protection,” Yang said. “RejuAgro is addressing that very specific market need.”

T3 is one of 20 startup companies that originated with UWM faculty research and launched with support of the UWM Research Foundation (UWMRF), the university’s commercialization office which has licensed the patents pending to T3.

T3 has substantially advanced its product development in the last two years, said UWMRF president Brian Thompson.

“At UWMRF, we observe that T3 is innovatively overcoming the weaknesses other bio-control agents in the agricultural sector with their product,” Thompson said. “In 2021 so far, they have cleared critical hurdles related to regulatory environmental tests. With these latest developments, we expect T3 to successfully remain on track with their EPA regulatory approval plans.”

For more information, contact: Daniel Burgin at dburgin@t3biosci.com.

About T3 BioScience:

T3 BioScience, LLC is a privately held biotech company that is exclusively focused on the agricultural sector of worldwide crop protection. Its mission is to save lives caused by antibiotic resistance by developing unique biocontrol agents and biopesticides that will make the use of antibiotics in agriculture obsolete. The company is leveraging the solid foundation of nearly two decades of microbiological research by founder and CSO Ching-Hong Yang. T3 is working on the commercialization of non-antibiotic agricultural products that protect crops from infection by harmful bacteria and fungus while preventing overuse of antibiotics in farming.

About RejuAgro:

RejuAgro is a natural biocontrol agent isolated from nature through T3’s proprietary methodology PROMISA. It shows potency and stability at the levels of agriculturally used antibiotics, without their environmentally damaging downsides. RejuAgro’s use of methodology is protected by U.S. and global patents.