Fruit success - start-up company Bex-Biotec receives funding as part of the “KMU-innovativ: Einstiegsmodul” for the technology field biotechnology and bioeconomy

„Our“ start-up and cooperation partner Bex-Biotec GmbH & Co. KG - founded earlier this year by our ex-PhD candidate and now CEO Dr. Rebecca Melcher – has successfully attracted funding from BMBF in the framework of its „KMU Innovativ“ programme. The project "Fruchtalarm" aims to develop a molecular marker system to characterize the influence of plant biostimulants on fruit development. Developing chitosans as plant biostimulants is one of the main goals of our group, and Rebecca had extended this to green algal ulvans during her PhD. She had optimised bioassays for biostimulant activities, and founded her start-up based on these assays which she has since further developed into a toolbox of screening assays allowing her to evaluate the biostimulant efficacy of a broad range of commercial products and pre-commercial active compounds towards crop plants and ornamentals. The aim is to accelerate the time-consuming and costly development of sustainable crop protection strategies. To this end, we will now collaborate to convert additional analytical tools we have recently developed in our group into meaningful screening assays suitable for a commercial setting. We are confident that Rebecca and her team will mince this project into a further success story for biostimulants, and for their young company Bex-Biotec.