Min Jin

Molagri (@ycombinator S26) is building resistance free pesticides. Pesticides underpin modern agriculture and food security, accounting for $80B in annual spend. Without effective pesticides, we can't grow enough food. Unfortunately, pests are developing resistance to current pesticides at a fast rate, and new pesticides aren't being developed fast enough. Molagri is developing next-generation pesticides using engineered insect virus-like particles. We start with a virus that only infects insects, strip out its genome so it can't infect or replicate, and use the empty protein shell as a delivery vehicle. We engineer that shell with two parts: (1) A targeting element that recognizes a single pest species (or a set of species), which keeps the product safe for humans, pollinators, and beneficial insects. (2) A payload that kills it. Both parts are swappable. Changing the targeting element will modify which pest it kills. Changing the payload will result in a new kill mechanism for the same pest, which is how we update the product when resistance appears. We have signed our first grower LOI, and have more in the pipeline. We have also produced our first set of viruses for testing. @zakymhassan and @minjinca are viral structural biology PhD lab mates from the University of Toronto who have worked on common cold coronaviruses and published in Nature Microbiology and Nature Communications. Min also holds the world record for the highest-resolution coronavirus spike structure (1.68 Å). Learn more at molagri.com