BioConsortia, an innovator in microbial consortia for improving plant traits and increasing crop yields, has announced the opening of its new company headquarters and R&D laboratories in Davis, California.

BioConsortia has developed a revolutionary R&D technology linking plant phenotype selection with high-throughput microbial screening and DNA sequencing. The process facilitates the rapid discovery of teams of microbes that increase fertilizer performance, improve plant growth and positively impact many other crop traits from abiotic stress tolerance to enhancing plant metabolite expression.

With the University of California and several important crop protection and biotech firms in the area, Davis has become a major hub for agricultural and microbial technology. BioConsortia will further contribute to this innovative environment in Davis through its high caliber team and unique R&D platform.

The new R&D labs were specifically designed and constructed to meet BioConsortia's needs, containing microbiology and molecular biology labs, growth chambers and resources for genomic analysis. The new facilities also serve as the company's corporate headquarters. The company's subsidiary, BioDiscovery New Zealand, will continue to conduct complementary research at its facilities in Auckland.

Senior VP of R&D, Dr. Susan Turner, commented: "Our technology has been proven in lab and field trials in New Zealand. I am looking forward to spearheading research in the new facilities and accelerating the development of our products for the US and global markets. With the surrounding companies and research interest, Davis is an ideal location for our operations. The coming months and years will bring exciting progress".

BioConsortia has a pipeline of seed treatment and soil-delivered products to improve key traits for soybean, corn, wheat and rice, as well as fruit and vegetable crops. These will all be pursued from the new labs. BioConsortia will partner with leading companies in fertilizer, seed/traits and crop protection industries, and will also conduct field trials with independent contractors, universities, distributors and growers across the USA.

"The opening of our new office and lab in Davis marks an important step in our journey toward the globalization of our innovative microbial technology", said CEO Marcus Meadows-Smith. "The new facilities provide us with a custom-designed space to develop solutions for the major challenges facing growers, such as overcoming abiotic stress and improving fertilizer efficiency to profitably increase yields."