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Microbiologist Dr. Barry Goldman believes the microbes in his local soil have the power to solve some of the world’s worst problems. If identified and cultivated, they could kill disease-carrying mosquitoes or prevent other insects from destroying crop yields. To prove his point, he launched a study to see what was in his own garden dirt. From 10 sandwich-sized bags of soil, he found 10 novel microbes that could kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus. His team has since found 50 more microbes that are natural insecticides. This potential gave Goldman the confidence to leave his 18-year career in synthetic biology and launch a St. Louis-based startup called Pluton Biosciences with five co-founders in 2017. A member of the Illumina Accelerator SF Bay Area 2020 cohort, Pluton has raised $6.7 million in seed money. The funds will help develop a discovery “micromining” platform for next-generation biosolutions. Learn more about how Pluton is using Illumina's sequencers to identify #microbes that naturally control pests and boost agricultural yields:

“CGP is the only test I order in the clinic that actually tells me what I can do. You’ll never regret sending CGP,” says Sandip Patel, M.D., Medical Oncologist, Associate Professor of Medicine, UC San Diego Health. Read more from our #ASCO22 panelists pushing precision medicine forward.