BCS_VerticalLogoBayer CropScience recently announced a licensing agreement with Missouri Innovation Center client Elemental Enzymes. Founders Brian and Katie Thompson started Elemental Enzymes in 2011 based on research conducted at the Christopher S. Bond Life Science Center at the University of Missouri. They have been a resident client at the MU Life Science Business Incubator since that time. Elemental Enzymes has received funding from Centennial Investors and the Missouri Technology Corporation.

The research collaboration and licenses with Bayer are specific to certain Elemental Enzymes technologies in multiple areas of the agricultural industry and provide Elemental Enzymes the opportunity to use innovations created by the collaboration in other areas and industries. The research is part of an on-going collaboration between the two companies involving the use of soil microbes to help improve plant health and improve crop productivity. “Bayer CropScience is a world-class partner to help introduce our proprietary platform to farmers globally,” says Jim Zimmer, global commercialization lead for Elemental Enzymes. Dr. Brian Thompson, CEO of Elemental Enzymes, shares “Our research is focused on delivering unique biological solutions to crops, leading to increased yields.”

Bayer CropScience believes that research in this technology will help broaden the scope of its offerings as a means of addressing agriculture’s long-term goal of helping to feed a world population that will exceed 9 billion people by 2050. “We believe this research will advance the use of soil microbes as a key component of modern agricultural practices in the future,” says Jim Blome, President and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP.

About Bill Turpin

Bill is CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center in Columbia, MO. With over 30 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur in Texas and California, Bill moved back to Columbia in 2014 to share his experience with promising entrepreneurs and build on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Mid Missouri.