Switch Bioworks has named Gordana M. Djordjevic as Chief Scientific Officer and Eric Bartels to its Board of Advisors. The appointments come as the company’s engineered nitrogen-fixing microbes move through USDA and EPA authorized field trials in the Midwest.
The timing matters. Switch is trying to commercialize a genetic-switch platform that could reshape how nitrogen fertilizer gets made. Most nitrogen fertilizer today comes from the Haber-Bosch process, which is energy intensive. It also leaves growers exposed to volatile energy markets. Switch’s engineered microbes take a different route. They establish on the plant root first, then switch on nitrogen production. That growth-then-production sequencing is the core technical unlock behind the platform.
The company says the same switching mechanism, which controls when and where engineered microbes activate, could extend well beyond nitrogen fixation into other applications. That broader potential is part of what the new hires are meant to support.
Djordjevic will lead Switch’s scientific and R&D organization. Her mandate includes moving the product pipeline from lab work through greenhouse and field trials, building out the R&D team, and shaping intellectual property and regulatory strategy. Bartels will advise on corporate strategy, commercialization, partnerships and the buildout of the company’s biologicals portfolio.
Together, the appointments signal a shift toward execution. Switch has already secured regulatory authorization for first-in-class field trials, now underway on corn across multiple sites in the U.S. Midwest. Those trials are testing microbial establishment and switchable nitrogen production under real agricultural conditions, a step beyond earlier growroom results.
The company’s genetic-switch technology is covered by seven patent families. If the field trials confirm what the company has seen in earlier testing, the platform could offer growers a lower-cost fertilizer alternative that is less exposed to global energy markets and supply disruptions.
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- Source: https://worldbiomarketinsights.com/switch-bioworks-bolsters-leadership-as-field-trials-advance/
