Frontier IP Group plc (LON:FIPP), which specialises in commercialising university intellectual property, has today announced that portfolio company Tarsis Technology, a spin out from the University of Cambridge, has entered into a collaboration agreement with one of the world’s leading manufacturers of crop-protection products.
The collaboration will research the use of Tarsis’ patent-pending technology to deliver chemical pesticides and fungicides in a more precise and controlled way.
Tarsis was incorporated to develop and commercialise technology created by Dr David Fairen-Jimenez, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and University Lecturer, and his research team at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. The technology is based on particles called metal-organic frameworks and has potential for a wide range of industrial applications.
The Company will fund the entire research programme in return for exclusive rights to Tarsis’ intellectual property for a defined set of agrochemicals. Tarsis will be paid a royalty fee for any commercially viable products that result.
Separately, Frontier IP has agreed to lend up to £150,000 to Tarsis to meet working capital requirements in return for equity options.
Tarsis Technology founder and director Dr David Fairen-Jimenez said: “We’re delighted a leading player in global agrochemicals is happy to demonstrate such a strong commitment to our novel technology.”
Frontier IP Group Plc Chief Executive Neil Crabb said: “We aim to bring industry and university spin-outs together at a very early stage in the commercialisation process. In that way, we ensure new technologies meet real-world demands and needs. This agreement is yet another sign our approach is beginning to pay off.”
Tarsis Technology and metal-organic frameworks:
Tarsis Technology specialises in developing metal-organic frameworks for the slower and more controlled delivery of active ingredients, such as agricultural chemicals. Metal-organic frameworks are particles combining organic and inorganic building blocks and are highly porous; they can adsorb a relatively large volume of an active ingredient compared to other types of particles.
The problem facing researchers in the past has been controlling the flow of the active ingredient from the particles – because they are porous, the ingredients leak out too quickly.
Tarsis Technology has developed a way of collapsing metal-organic frameworks (MOF) to lock an active ingredient inside the particle. There are many thousands of MOF particles, with different properties, including the rate at which they dissolve. Depending on which one is used, an active ingredient can be released over minutes, days or even months, or in response to climate or environmental changes.
