Nature is full of untapped potential. Microbes are a proven but underused resource for uncovering novel solutions for today's biggest problems. Soil is a rich and abundant resource for microbes - a teaspoon of soil contains more than 100 billion bacteria and hundreds of thousands of species, each with their own undiscovered talents and capabilities.
Pluton “mines” the soil to quickly and inexpensively discover new ways to use microbes to make next generation bioproducts for a variety of industries. Pluton’s process fills critical cracks in the Research and Development pipeline by speeding the introduction of novel and beneficial products to market.
Pluton Biosciences aspires to solve global problems and help ensure a sustainable future for our planet. To do this, we aim to utilize our Targeted Discovery approach to uncover innovative microbial solutions.
Microbes are microscopic organisms that include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. They are everywhere - in the air, in the soil, in the ocean, and even in you! It is estimated that half of the cells in the human body aren't human, but bacteria.
Microbes have been on Earth much longer than we have - nearly 4 billion years! They have adapted to all kinds of environmental insults, and can live in environments where no other organisms survive. It's truly a microbe's world, not ours.
It is estimated that our planet is home to a trillion microbial species. In a single teaspoon of soil, there are more than 100 billion bacteria.
These microbes are quite talented - they can degrade environmental contaminants, make drugs to cure disease, protect our crops, and fight vectors of disease. Microbes have given us some of our most important discoveries, ones which have changed the course of human development.
Antibiotics. Crop protection. Bioremediation. The ability to edit our own genomes. All of these inventions were not human inventions, just ones we borrowed from microbes. Microbes truly are nature's "master inventors."
What else can microbes do? At Pluton, we search for the "what else."
A number of problems face our growing planet: threats to our food supply, emerging diseases, environmental hazards. We ask microbes: what solutions do you have?
Scientific research and product development is difficult. In the biotech industry, the R&D pipeline is long, expensive, and full of dead-ends. By providing development-ready leads to creators of new bioproducts, Pluton enables these companies to deliver commercially viable biosolutions faster and cheaper. This means more innovations on the market and more problems solved naturally.
Using Micromining, our Agile Discovery platform, we identify microbial leads for partners that want to produce biosolutions that replace outdated or harmful chemical products.
Pluton enables discovery. Help us discover a sustainable tomorrow today.
To enable the Micromining platform, a company needs world-class scientists and engineers on board. Micromining requires a diverse group of talents and expertise.
Pluton's team is made up of scientists with expertise in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, genomics, assay development, and of course, the microbiome. We work with engineers to automate our data capture, enabling us to make discoveries faster.
Pluton is guided by the strong leadership of our CEO, Charlie Walch, who has extensive entrepreneurial and management experience.
Our efforts are supported by a Scientific Advisory Board comprised of respected and accomplished scientists from St. Louis and beyond. These scientists provide us with valuable ideas and feedback to help develop our discovery process. In addition, our business advisors have over 50 years combined experience working in Silicon Valley as bankers, venture capitalists, software developers, and accelerator managers.
We demonstrated the power of Pluton's Micromining approach using one of the most notable and historical threats to mankind: mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are the world's deadliest animal, responsible for spreading a number of devastating viral and parasitic diseases. Pluton's proof-of-concept efforts targeted the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits yellow and dengue fevers, as well as the Zika and Chikungunya viruses.
Using Micromining, Pluton identified two novel bacteria with insecticidal properties against Ae. aegypti in 3 months. To provide perspective, only two other bacterial species have been developed for use against mosquitoes in the past 30 years!
We have recently entered into a joint development agreement with our first customer, Terramera, a leader in technology for clean food. We are actively collaborating with Terramera to develop a number of our novel bioinsecticides for use against agricultural pests. Terramera is an excellent match for our first collaboration – we excel at discovery of bioactives and Terramera excels at improving and formulating bioactives.
See our recent press release for more information about this exciting development.
Pluton may fail to make new discoveries.
We may face unanticipated operational difficulties, including an inability to obtain necessary permits or governmental approvals, the development of competing technologies, experimental failure, or the unavailability of key equipment or reagents.
Pluton may not be able to develop our discoveries into useful products.
Development of new products can be lengthy, expensive, and complex. We, or our customers, may be unable to develop or commercialize any of the product candidates we are currently researching. This may be due to formulation failure, lack of efficacy in field or clinical trials, or the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approval.
The development and commercialization of Pluton’s products will be too competitive.
We face competition in our ability to license our discoveries to existing manufacturers for joint development into commercial products. Our competitors include the in-house research divisions at major companies, as well as smaller or early-stage companies that collaborate with larger companies. Many of these competitors have greater resources and product development experience than we do. Major companies, who we envision as potential customers/licensees, may not elect to license our discoveries, and instead opt to rely on their own internal research pipeline.
Pluton will be unable to recruit, retain, and develop the necessary personnel with the right expertise.
The success of our Agile Discovery process requires highly qualified personnel. We may have to train existing personnel or hire additional personnel, which can be competitive. Additionally, our consultants and advisors may have commitments under employment, consulting, or advisory contracts with third parties that may limit their availability to us.
Pluton will be unable to obtain necessary intellectual property rights, including patents and trademarks.
In order to maintain a competitive advantage, our discoveries must be protected by intellectual property, such as patents and trademarks. Our intellectual property rights may not be broad enough or may not provide us a significant competitive advantage. Additionally, our intellectual property may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented by third parties. Protection of our intellectual property may also involve initiating expensive and time-consuming litigation.
Pluton’s product success may be hindered by substantial environmental liability and limitations due to environmental laws and regulations.
The products developed from our discoveries are subject to extensive federal, state, local and foreign environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations concerning matters such as air emissions, wastewater discharges, solid and hazardous waste handling and disposal, and the investigation and remediation of contamination. These regulations may result in substantial costs and liabilities. Compliance with these requirements may prove to be more limiting and costly than we anticipate.
Pluton will be unable to raise sufficient capital to sustain our current business plan.
In order for Pluton achieve our near and long-term goals, we will need to procure funds in addition to the amount raised in this offering. There is no guarantee that Pluton will be able to raise such funds. If we are unable to raise sufficient capital in the future, we will not be able to execute our business plan, our continued operations will be in jeopardy, and we may be forced to cease operations and sell or otherwise transfer all or substantially all of our remaining assets, which could cause a Purchaser to lose all or a portion of his or her investment.
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Pluton Biosciences, LLC is conducting a Regulation Crowdfunding offering via Nvstedwithus.com a website owned and operated by STL Critical Technologies JV I LLC. CRD Number: #288930.
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