NOVAGRICA participates in OLEFINE  a HORIZON 2020 Project

The EU-funded project OLEFINE aims to make pheromone production so cheap that they will become an affordable alternative to insecticides which are harmful for the farmer, the consumer and the environment. Currently, pheromones are produced by chemical synthesis, which is an expensive and polluting process. The scientists in OLEFINE will use biotechnology instead to produce pheromones at low cost by brewing, in the same way how insulin is made for diabetes treatment and enzymes are produced for washing powders. more:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 760798.

The academic and industrial partners engaged in the OLEFINE project have the joint vision of demonstrating the technoeconomic viability and sustainability of biological production of insect pheromones for use as safe and environmentally friendly insecticide substitutes.

Biological production of cheaper pheromones will be a market disrupting technology that will allow rapid expansion of pheromone-based pest management products. The partners behind OLEFINE have developed a novel technology for biological production of pheromones using oleaginous yeast cell factories.

OLEFINE aims to optimize, validate, and commercialize biotech process for production of high-added-value chemicals (insect pheromones) for use as non-toxic insecticide replacements. The production cost will be reduced by at least 75% in relation to the current state-of-the-art.

In summary, OLEFINE will bring new sustainable high-value chemicals to the market and create new business opportunities and jobs in European biotech sector, which is in line with the challenge of the topic.