[New Collaboration] iMEAN x BAYER
For faster discovery of new crop protection solutions
- iMEAN combines data, modelling and advanced algorithms to accelerate the discovery of new environmentally friendly products within Bayer’s R&D program.
- New partnership allows Bayer to bring advanced crop protection tools to farmers faster, and it is Bayer’s latest move demonstrating its dedication to open innovation in agriculture.
Toulouse, France, July 27th, 2021 – Arming Bayer researchers with tools to accelerate discovery of innovative crop protection products is the focus of a new collaboration announced today between technology platform company iMEAN and the agriculture leader.
The partnership comes at a time when farmers worldwide are losing as much as 50 percent of their crops when fields are left unprotected against weeds, insects and diseases. The French based iMEAN company uses a technology based on the reconstruction of digital organisms: mathematical representations of the complex molecular networks of living organisms at the genome-scale to accelerate the discovery of new crop protection products. Researchers in Bayer’s Crop Science R&D program then use those discoveries to advance new solutions.
“Our in-house modelling platform combines our database of digital organisms with
our innovative algorithms and our expert manual curation. That allows us to
generate a high-quality digital organism of plants and plant pathogens in a short
timeframe from DNA sequences and other omics datasets,” said Remi Peyraud,
CEO of iMEAN. “We use these models in our simulation platform with a creative
analysis toolbox based on systems biology and biostatistics.”
Bayer scientists consistently challenge themselves to discover new generations of crop protection substances that meet the expectations of farmers and society. iMEAN’s platform allows researchers to extract the most from Bayer’s experimental data on these substances and provide valuable biological insights.
“Early phase projects often have unexplored chemistry which requires a lot of time
to find its best or most effective use,” said Kerstin Groene, a researcher from Bayer
Crop Science. “Using digital organisms supports us in the design of innovative
chemistry at an early discovery stage, allowing us to discover novel crop protection
solutions for sustainable agriculture.”
