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Testing4Ag 2023: Novel compounds for early biological screening cascades
What questions do you have about this RFP?
Get them answered by the team at Bayer Crop Science.
Background

Weeds, disease, and harmful insects rob plants of water, sunlight, and nutrients, which can have a devastating impact on food production. At Bayer, we bring greater than a century of research withto manage these global challenges, and we want you to help us find the next exciting class of crop protection products. We are interested in collaborating to identify novel starting points for our R&D teams, find tool compounds that could unlock new modes of action for control of fungal diseases, insect pests, or weeds and reduce the environmental impact of future products.  

 

Through our Testing4Ag program, we offer testing of your compounds against plant pathogens, weed species, insect and nematode pests or vectors using our state-of-the-art phenotypical biological assays on whole organisms. Upon submission, our computational screens will confirm that your compounds are appropriate for evaluation. Selection will be based on novelty, PhysChem properties, and sustainability e.g., human or environmental safety alerts. To complete the initial screening steps, we will request a sample of at least 5 mg. Free shipping of compounds to Bayer as well as packing materials will be provided.  

 

Results of biological tests will be shared with you and can be freely published. Any IP generated in the program will stay with you and your institution.

What we're looking for

Does your research focus on the design of biologically-active compounds or synthetic methods to gain access to novel molecular scaffolds? Do you have sets of different compounds derived from the same chemistry? We are interested in receiving small organic synthetic or fragment-like molecules - including natural products and their derivatives - from universities, research institutes, biotechs, CROs and pharmaceutical companies.

Our must-have requirements are:
  • 5 to 10mg of compound(s) available for biological screening
Our nice-to-have's are:
  • Set of related compounds (2 to greater than 10)

  • Greater than 10mg of compound(s) would allow for more detailed follow-up biological profiling

What's out of scope:
  • Microbial strains
  • Crude extracts or partially purified compound mixtures.
  • Virtual compounds
  • Compounds obtained or developed outside of your institution
  • Reactive compounds
  • Nanocomposites
Who we are

Bayer’s vision of #HealthForAll, #HungerForNone drives our need to strengthen innovation capabilities in all areas of agriculture. We know we can’t accomplish this alone, so we're always interested to hear about novel, early-stage scientific innovations that can contribute to feeding the world without starving the planet. You have our commitment to take a look, match with our R&D priorities and provide you timely feedback.

 Learn more
Reviewers
PT
Phil Taylor
Director of Open Innovation & Outreach
SM
Simon Maechling
Innovation Scout
MC
Michael Crawford
Emerging Technologies
DR
Dan Ruzicka
Innovation Sourcing Lead - Biotech Breeding
Q&A with Bayer Crop Science

The Q&A is now closed.

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Q.
For potential compounds that I'd like to enroll in the testing, what level of information and characterization do the samples need to be supplied with? Mass spec, FTIR, NMR etc.?
4
A.
Thanks Istok for your question. We will not ask you to submit any characterization of your compound with your submission, This is important in order to not reveal the identity of your chemistry. We will ask that the substances submitted have a purity of >95%.
SM
Simon Maechling, Innovation Scout, Bayer Crop Science
February 2, 2023
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1
0
Q.
Do you anticipate phytohormones being of interest, or is that an are that you generally have good coverage of?
1
A.
Hi John--thanks for the question. Testing4Ag's evaluation cascade is designed to measure direct activity vs. fungal, insect, and weed species. If you anticipate one or more of these effects with phytohormones of interest to you, then feel free to submit.
MC
Michael Crawford, Emerging Technologies, Bayer Crop Science
March 2, 2023
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0
Q.
Are biostimulants being considered, and if so, are there any types that would not fit?
1
A.
Hello John--thank you for your interest. Due to screening capacity, the Testing 4 Ag program is specifically designed to evaluate direct effects on various pests, pathogen and weed species. Unfortunately, other assay types, such as abiotic stress, resistance induction, or crop growth/yield regulation are not in the scope of the current testing regime. However, we may be able to direct you to other groups at Bayer Crop Science that may be interested (and/or have validated assays to evaluate) these outcomes. Feel free to contact us regarding these more specialized testing protocols.
MC
Michael Crawford, Emerging Technologies, Bayer Crop Science
February 16, 2023
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1
0
Q.
When you say "reactive compounds" are "out of scope", do you mean covalent-acting compounds? What if we continuously produce potentially testable compounds?
1
A.
Hi David--the 'reactive' flag is placed to reduce nominations of compounds that are likely non-specifically toxic (toxicophores). These would trigger a structural alert during the in silico screening phase. However, compounds could be acceptable to Testing4Ag if they contain a covalent-acting moiety but are designed to specifically bind to a particular molecular target. If that is the case, I would make note of these groups during your submission. With regards to continually producing compounds, it depends on the scale given that our logistics and biological screening cascades can manage ~10^3 compounds per testing cycle in lieu of overlapping internal projects at Bayer. Therefore, we would need to apply more stringent in silico filters if someone, for example, proposed a 10^6 compound library.
MC
Michael Crawford, Emerging Technologies, Bayer Crop Science
February 28, 2023
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