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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.
Form C
what are microbes?
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.
microbes: Nature's "master inventors"
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?
Micromining, Explained
the Research & development pipeline needs innovation
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.
A world-class discovery team
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.
Our Proof of Concept: killing the disease-transmitting mosquito AEDES AEGYPTI
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!
What's next
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.
Review the Form C on file with the SEC for other important disclosures including GAAP financial statements, key members of the company with a significant stake or more than 20% voting rights and legal information about the company, entity type and date and place of incorporation.
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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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Where does this untapped potential come from? Microbes are exposed to all kinds of unique environments and challenges to their survival. As a result, they have invented all sorts of solutions in order to thrive. This ability to adapt provides the rich repository of bioactives that Pluton can Micromine.
For example, some bacteria have adapted to be insect pathogens. Bacteria can do this a number of ways, many of which remain undiscovered. The bacteria themselves, as well as the bioactives they produce, can all be uncovered by Pluton’s Micromining process. To demonstrate the power of our Micromining platform, we identified novel bacteria that kill Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. The mechanisms that these new bacteria use to kill the larvae are completely distinct from those found in current bacterial larvicides.
Other targets of interest may include additional pests of humans and plants, such as ticks or the emerald ash borer. Bacteria have also adapted to degrade environmental contaminants or produce useful chemicals. Pluton is eager to tackle these problems with our Agile Discovery approach.
Please see Form C for more information regarding our joint development agreements.
Simply said, Terramera is an excellent match for our first collaboration – we excel at discovery of bioactives and Terramera excels at improving bioactives.
For more information, see our recent joint press release:
https://www.stltoday.com/pr/news/st-louis-based-pluton-biosciences-signs-research-and-license-agreement/article_6d77ffa8-c649-11e8-8d75-9f88a3660582.html
With the money raised in the current seed round, we plan to conduct three more discovery assays before the end of 2019.
The long term pace of lead generation will depend on future funding, commercialization success, and market adoption.
St. Louis is an epicenter for agricultural technology (“agtech”) and biomedical research, making it the perfect place to connect with collaborators, customers, and talent.
Finally, St. Louis is a capital-efficient place to run a business. The cost of living is a fraction of that on the coasts. Therefore, investors will get more for their money because our scientists and engineers get more for theirs.
In our next phase of research, we will obtain the regulatory permits necessary to import and test soil from many locations in the United States.
Just using a small soil library (100 soils), we were able to “overachieve” at our proof-of-concept work by finding multiple, novel mosquitocidal microbes.
Assay design is a pillar of our Micromining platform. Assays connect our microbe collection with the target of interest (a pest, environmental contaminant, pathogen, etc.), two key aspects of Agile Discovery. Well-designed assays allow us to test our microbes quickly and get meaningful data in order to prioritize leads for our customers.
You can also follow us on social media:
Twitter (https://twitter.com/PlutonBio)
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LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/plutonbio/)
