“RNA is our toolkit”: APOLO Biotech is building precision tools to modulate plants and fight pathogens
As we prepare to launch Soil Tech: The Future of Sustainable Farming, our fourth Position Paper at Grey Silo Ventures, we’re highlighting a few of the most compelling voices in the space.
In this second preview interview, we speak with Matias Badano, CEO and co-founder of APOLO Biotech, a pioneering startup developing RNA-based crop protection and plant modulation technologies. Founded in Argentina in 2022, APOLO is now actively working toward becoming the first RNA company registered in Europe.
Matias shares how their proprietary stabilization platform and highly selective bioinformatics pipeline are enabling targeted, residue-free solutions against diseases like Botrytis and unlocking a new frontier in RNA-powered plant modulation. From enhancing drought tolerance to silencing pest genes, APOLO is helping shape the next generation of biological inputs that are both scalable and environmentally safe.
Why did you choose to focus on Botrytis first? How are you able to provide such better results (25.6% vs. 100% gray mold control)?
Botrytis was selected as our initial target at APOLO Biotech to serve as proof of concept. Scientific literature supports the use of dsRNA to silence key genes in this pathogen, making it an ideal model for evaluating our technology. Additionally, Botrytis causes gray mold, a globally widespread disease affecting multiple crops, allowing us to validate our approach across different plant hosts.
Our superior control results (25.6% vs. 100%) were obtained under in vitro conditions. This success is attributed to our optimized RNA design specifically targeting Botrytis and the cutting-edge stabilization technology developed by our scientific team. This product was further validated in field trials for tomato, lettuce, blueberries, vines and strawberries.
Furthermore, based on this first proof-of-concept, we developed RNA sprays to control a growing number of fungal diseases, which were riskier than Botrytis, although they proved to be efficient.
You mentioned that crop modulation is a “Blue Ocean”, why do you think that is and why do you think you are uniquely equipped to answer some of the challenges that agriculture is currently facing?
Crop modulation represents a “Blue Ocean” because it expands the potential of RNA-based solutions beyond pathogen control, opening new, largely unexplored opportunities in agriculture. While most RNA companies focus on crop protection, our approach goes further by designing bioactive RNAs that actively modulate plant responses to environmental stress, optimize development, and enhance beneficial interactions with symbiotic microorganisms.
We are uniquely equipped to lead this innovation due to our deep expertise in RNA biology and proprietary stabilization technology, which enhances systemicity, residual activity, and shelf life. Our platform integrates multiple RNA-based strategies, leveraging both exogenous dsRNA and endogenous small and long noncoding RNAs. This allows us to achieve superior results with significantly lower RNA inputs.
To support this vision, our R&D team has secured over USD 2M in national and international grants specifically for this Blue Ocean opportunity. We also collaborate with leading global researchers in RNA biology and validate our designs in partnership with specialists across diverse crop-pathogen systems, ensuring that each solution addresses high-priority agricultural challenges with precision and impact.
What are some of the ways your processes change whether you’re working on plant modulation or pest gene silencing?
While both plant modulation and pest gene silencing rely on RNA-based technologies, the underlying design and validation processes differ significantly:
For pest gene silencing, we design highly specific dsRNAs to silence critical genes in the target organism, leading to its suppression or mortality. In this case, our proper bioinformatics pipeline ensures minimal off-target effects on beneficial organisms.
For plant modulation, instead of silencing, we design bioactive RNAs that enhance or fine-tune plant physiological responses, such as stress adaptation, development, or symbiotic interactions. This requires understanding endogenous plant RNA networks and leveraging the regulatory role of small and long noncoding RNAs.
How does your RNA-based technology specifically target pathogens without affecting beneficial organisms?
We develop double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) constructs targeting specific pathogen genes that we select based on their critical role in infection or pathogen survival. Each dsRNA is designed to specifically target the pathogen, leading to variability in both length and target sequences.
We employ a properly specialized bioinformatics pipeline to design each dsRNA sequence. This pipeline ensures high specificity -therefore safety for other organisms- by comparing the designed sequences across multiple genomes (140) including those of mammals, insects,fishes, birds, amphibians, plants, humans, and fungi to avoid cross-reactions. It is worth noting that our competitor submitted their regulatory dossiers with a comparison of around 30 genomes to ensure specificity. Thanks to our bioinformatics platform, we currently integrate the comparison of hundreds of genomes, and we will enlarge our database to thousands of genomes, to ensure specificity, thus innocuity. We also have capabilities on multi-omic data integration, which supports external partners in optimizing their own biological solutions.
