Fielding new ideas: Sault biotech firm gets research funding.

AuthorRoss, Ian
PositionGreen Report

A Sault Ste. Marie pest management firm received federal funding to search for the next generation of organic tree pesticides.

BioForest Technologies and company president Joe Meating want to dive deep into tree chemistry with an eye on producing new pest control tools.

The growing 25-employee company has received much media attention for bringing TreeAzin to market, a bio-product that safeguards trees from invasive and damaging insect species like the emerald ash borer.

Now the company is out to cover new ground after receiving $160,000 from the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program in July.

"We think there may be an opportunity here to go to the next level in terms of pesticides," said Meating.

He explained there's an evolutionary and symbiotic relationship that seems to exist between communities of fungi found on almost every tree worldwide.

There's endophytic fungi that grows on the inside fibres and epiphytic fungi on the outside. Both groups appear to serve various functions in the host tree's defence and nutrition.

"There seems to be a real collaborative effort going on between the trees and fungi, and in some cases other organisms as well," said Meating. "The best description of a tree is that it's a community of organisms from insects to mammals to birds to microbials. We're really just beginning to appreciate that."

Their research will serve to better understand that relationship with the end goal of creating a commercial product.

Meating is reluctant to identify what specific tree species they're targeting, but the field work will take them internationally.

"The net will be cast fairly broadly to get sense of what's out there.

"Once we've identified a few of these organisms then we'll zero in on various aspects of their growth and behaviour to see if we might be able to enhance that."

Meating cautions they're a long way from commercialization.

"Right now we're at a very basic level. We've guesstimated between now and producing anything commercially is probably five to seven years. And we're in year one."

The research includes collaboration with Algoma University's microbiology group.

"I find it interesting that we're looking at trees quite differently than we were five years ago," said Meating. "It's slow and agonizing stuff because it seems to be very complicated, but as more people work on it, some of the complexity is being...

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