NYU Startup Gets Grant To Develop Pesticide-Free Cannabis Using Protein Engineering Methods

Brooklyn Bioscience, a startup from NYU Tandon School of Engineering, received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

The company is working to develop pesticide-free cannabis using protein engineering methods that break-down and detoxify organophosphates, a commonly used pesticide. Organophosphates, neurotoxins classified as one of the most hazardous classes of chemicals being used in the agricultural sector by the World Health Organization, are particularly toxic when vaporized and inhaled.

“Cannabis is legal, either medical or recreationally, in 33 states and the industry continues to expand, but state regulators and consumers are concerned about the levels of organophosphates in cannabis plants. Our research has found a way to breakdown and remove these toxic chemicals with our engineered proteins in water, providing cannabis cultivators an accessible way to follow state testing regulation,” Jin Kim Montclare, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, told Benzinga.

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