Proprietary technology for discovery of novel crop protection products
About AgPlenus
At AgPlenus, we are pioneers in the field of agricultural sciences and AI for agriculture. We dedicate our efforts to revolutionizing crop protection solutions. Utilizing a target-based approach, we design novel products with novel Modes of Action (MoAs) to address global agricultural challenges. Committed to sustainable products, our interdisciplinary team merges cutting-edge AI-driven technology with scientific expertise, aiming to ensure a more resilient and productive future for farmers worldwide.
Our Vision
Novel, sustainable crop protection products
Discover and design novel crop protection products allowing food security for the rapidly growing world population.
Our Mission
AI and science to boost innovative crop protection development
Accelerate the development of target-based, novel crop protection products, harnessing AI for agriculture, and utilizing a cutting-edge computational engine based on AI, combined with a deep understanding of biology and chemistry.
The market challenges
With the rapidly growing population and the need to significantly increase food production, the call for effective and sustainable crop protection products is louder than ever. Although agro chemical pesticides are a proven economical approach to increase crop yields, this field is undergoing challenging changes.
Pests have become more and more resistant to existing chemistries and Modes of Action (MoAs). The development of new products is long and expensive and companies face an ever growing list of environmental regulatory requirements.
This leads to lack of innovation in this field, a problem that AgPlenus seeks to resolve.
Key crop protection product development challenges
Developers of new crop protection products face two major challenges.
First, one must define the target protein. To find the right target protein from thousands of proteins in the relevant plant is challenging. Once the target protein is selected, a new MoA needs to be designed, with an effective small molecule inhibitor that modulates or stops the activity of the target protein, without resulting in adverse cross-reactivity in the crop.
The second challenge lies in the identification, optimization and design of the small molecule inhibitor. To find a novel inhibitor that effectively and selectively affects that target protein one must screen billions of compounds.
Management
Dan Gelvan PhD, Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Gelvan is CEO of AgPlenus. With over three decades of experience in life-science and technology companies, Dr. Gelvan brings exceptional leadership and strategic vision. Dr. Gelvan has founded and managed companies, and has 20 years of experience in venture capital. Before joining AgPlenus, Dr. Gelvan established a number of AI-based companies in the healthcare field. Dan holds a BA and MA in Economics from The Hebrew University and a PhD in Business Economics from Roskilde University, Denmark.
Brian Ember PhD, Chief Business Officer
Brian Ember is the Chief Business Officer at AgPlenus having had multiple leadership roles within the organization over the past two plus years. Brian has held various positions in agriculture over the past 16 years in both research and business functions and with multinationals (Syngenta and BASF) as well as startups (Agrimetis, Biotalys). Brian has a BS in Chemistry from the University of Florida, a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Georgia, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mirit Ram MSc, Vice President Portfolio Management
Mirit Ram is the Vice President of Portfolio Management at AgPlenus, a position she has held since 2018. She brings over 15 years of experience in the agriculture industry, specializing in solutions and portfolio management.
Before joining AgPlenus, Mirit served as Project Management Director at Evogene and worked in the Innovation Center at FMC as a Project Manager and scientist . She holds a BSc and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technion.
Merav Beiman PhD, Vice President R&D
Merav, with over 25 years of experience, is a seasoned leader in biopharmaceutical and Agtech industries. As VP of R&D at AgPlenus, she leads innovative crop protection discovery using AI. Previously, as CEO of ImmPACT-Bio, she drove advancements in CAR-T therapy. At Ferring Pharmaceuticals, she supervised global CMC teams. Merav holds a B.Sc., M.Sc. in Life Sciences from Tel-Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Board of Directors
Our board of directors brings extensive collective experience in science and business.
Currently:
Evogene, President and CEO
Previously:
Evogene, COO, CFO; Compugen, Director of Finance and Treasurer
Ofer Haviv
Chairman of The Board
Currently:
Board of directors, Evogene, BioLumic, HiFidelity Genetics and Biotalys
Previously:
UPL, CTO
Adrian Percy
Director
Currently:
Elicit Plant, VP Strategic Alliances
Previously:
AgPlenus, CEO Evogene, EVP & GM Crop Protection
Eran Kosover
Director
Currently:
Marrone Bio Innovations, Chairman Bioenterprise Capital, Venture Partner
Previously:
Syngenta, President USA
Robert A. Woods,
Director
SAB Members
Bill Jorgensen, PhD, SAB member
Bill Jorgensen, a Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale since 1990, is renowned for his computational work on force fields (OPLS), organic and enzymatic reactions in solution, molecular recognition, and protein-ligand binding. His group excels in de novo drug design and synthesis, utilizing free-energy perturbation calculations for efficient lead optimization. Bill’s distinguished career includes the ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, the ACS Hildebrand Award, the Tetrahedron Prize, and the Arthur C. Cope Award. He is a member of several prestigious academies (International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and US National Academy of Sciences) and was the founding Editor of the ACS Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (2005-2021)
Hans J. Santel, PhD, SAB member
Hans J. Santel is a herbicide expert with over 40 years of professional experience. He held research, development, project management and marketing positions in Bayer/Bayer CropScience with global and regional responsibilities, working from the German and the North American head offices He also engaged in academic teaching of weed control for over a dozen years at University Hohenheim, Germany. Hans holds a diploma and PhD from Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg/Germany with focus on plant physiology and biochemistry.
Hanoch Senderowitz, PhD, SAB member
Hanoch Senderowitz, is a professor of computational chemistry at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He earned his Ph.D. in computational organic chemistry with Professor Benzion Fuchs at Tel Aviv University and completed his Fulbright post-doctoral training with Professor Clark Still at Columbia University. He worked at Peptor Ltd. and EPIX Pharmaceuticals as Executive Director of Computational Development. In 2009, he joined Bar-Ilan University, leading the laboratory for molecular modeling, computer-aided drug design, and chemoinformatics. His research focuses on molecular modeling and machine learning in drug design, chemoinformatics, materials-informatics, agro-informatics, and forensic-informatics