IN AN OLD SHOE FACTORY on the outskirts of Paris, new life is taking shape. A bank of PCR machines is multiplying plant DNA molecules by the hundreds of billions every few hours. Inside a gleaming white chamber, tiny emerald shoots are coaxed from single cells, unfurling in millimeters over a period of months.
It's a biologist's dream, says Patrick Torbey, CTO of Neoplants, a startup that's placing a multimillion-dollar bet on the air we breathe. Torbey grabs one of the clear plastic growing containers from the chamber and squints at his verdant creation: Nestled in a jelly-like growing medium called agar, it looks like a canapé-or, possibly, the future.
This is the Neo P1-a houseplant the firm genetically modified to help combat indoor air pollution. Pl is a tweaked form of golden pothos, commonly known as devil's ivy, one of the most ubiquitous and easy-going houseplants. Neoplants has engineered its DNA to boost its ability to sequester volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene-that are prevalent in the air inside homes and businesses.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1450523853/1679923958/articles/J8TilooMD1680084762346/3381399932.jpg]
The modifications also enable the plant to convert the VOCs into substances like sugar and CO₂ that it can use to grow. Once it has outgrown the agar, Pl will be planted in a pot designed to maximize airflow and sold with packs of bacteria that are added to the soil each month to help the plant metabolize VOCs. Due to hit stores later this year, Pl will retail for $179-roughly 10 times the cost of an ordinary golden pothos plant, and in the ballpark of a decent HEPA purifier.
So far, Torbey, who has a PhD in genome editing, and cofounder Lionel Mora, a former Google product marketer, have attracted $20 million in investment from firms like True Ventures and Collaborative Fund. Much of the money has gone toward outfitting the shoe factory to fulfill its new mission. Over the past two years it's been stripped and gutted, whitewashed, and equipped with every gadget Torbey could tick off his wish list. There are mass spectrometers, fume cupboards, and growth chambers; magnetic stirrers fidget next to cabinets stocked with glass flasks and petri dishes. The interiors of two rooms are coated in a greenish nonadsorbent material (organic compounds won't stick to it). They'll be used to get more accurate measurements of how well the P1 strips toxins from the air.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1450523853/1679923958/articles/J8TilooMD1680084762346/1771007379.jpg]
Neoplants' proposition neatly pairs something that looks nice in homes and brings people joy (houseplants) with one of the biggest challenges facing humanity (slowly choking to death from pollutants). But proving that it actually works is where things get thorny.
Browse most plant shops and you'll be met with the promise of purified air: peace lilies, snake plants, and ivy with little tags declaring, "This plant cleans air." Patch, a popular online retailer, reserves a section of its website for "air purifying indoor plants." Another vendor, Plantler, offers an "Air so Pure" package of spider plants, palms, and ferns.
Much of the support for these claims comes from research in 1989, when NASA worked with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America to assess houseplants' ability to remove toxins from the air. The resulting Clean Air Study suggested that, yes, plants could absorb certain VOCs and other pollutants. Less publicized was the fact that most of these results couldn't be replicated outside the lab. Putting a plant in a sealed chambe...
It's a biologist's dream, says Patrick Torbey, CTO of Neoplants, a startup that's placing a multimillion-dollar bet on the air we breathe. Torbey grabs one of the clear plastic growing containers from the chamber and squints at his verdant creation: Nestled in a jelly-like growing medium called agar, it looks like a canapé-or, possibly, the future.
This is the Neo P1-a houseplant the firm genetically modified to help combat indoor air pollution. Pl is a tweaked form of golden pothos, commonly known as devil's ivy, one of the most ubiquitous and easy-going houseplants. Neoplants has engineered its DNA to boost its ability to sequester volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene-that are prevalent in the air inside homes and businesses.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1450523853/1679923958/articles/J8TilooMD1680084762346/3381399932.jpg]
The modifications also enable the plant to convert the VOCs into substances like sugar and CO₂ that it can use to grow. Once it has outgrown the agar, Pl will be planted in a pot designed to maximize airflow and sold with packs of bacteria that are added to the soil each month to help the plant metabolize VOCs. Due to hit stores later this year, Pl will retail for $179-roughly 10 times the cost of an ordinary golden pothos plant, and in the ballpark of a decent HEPA purifier.
So far, Torbey, who has a PhD in genome editing, and cofounder Lionel Mora, a former Google product marketer, have attracted $20 million in investment from firms like True Ventures and Collaborative Fund. Much of the money has gone toward outfitting the shoe factory to fulfill its new mission. Over the past two years it's been stripped and gutted, whitewashed, and equipped with every gadget Torbey could tick off his wish list. There are mass spectrometers, fume cupboards, and growth chambers; magnetic stirrers fidget next to cabinets stocked with glass flasks and petri dishes. The interiors of two rooms are coated in a greenish nonadsorbent material (organic compounds won't stick to it). They'll be used to get more accurate measurements of how well the P1 strips toxins from the air.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1450523853/1679923958/articles/J8TilooMD1680084762346/1771007379.jpg]
Neoplants' proposition neatly pairs something that looks nice in homes and brings people joy (houseplants) with one of the biggest challenges facing humanity (slowly choking to death from pollutants). But proving that it actually works is where things get thorny.
Browse most plant shops and you'll be met with the promise of purified air: peace lilies, snake plants, and ivy with little tags declaring, "This plant cleans air." Patch, a popular online retailer, reserves a section of its website for "air purifying indoor plants." Another vendor, Plantler, offers an "Air so Pure" package of spider plants, palms, and ferns.
Much of the support for these claims comes from research in 1989, when NASA worked with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America to assess houseplants' ability to remove toxins from the air. The resulting Clean Air Study suggested that, yes, plants could absorb certain VOCs and other pollutants. Less publicized was the fact that most of these results couldn't be replicated outside the lab. Putting a plant in a sealed chambe...
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WIRED (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2023