The Columbus-based biotech startup is creating biologic replacements for synthetic chemicals such as antifungals used to improve crop health and yields.
Most people have heard the term biologics by now. It refers to therapies made or derived from living organisms, such as proteins, that are increasingly being used in the treatment of diseases like cancer or diabetes.
But did you know they might be able to heal your tomatoes?
Scioto AgriTech, a Columbus-based biotech startup, is pioneering novel uses of biologics on plants in the hopes of saving farmers money and increasing crop yields.
CEO Nicole Weidner says the agricultural industry has been attempting to apply biologic agents with natural antifungal or antibacterial properties with only moderate success.
The application does not genetically modify the plant, Weidner says. A biologic agent kills a pest like a fungus or bacteria by disrupting a targeted pathway in that organism. And it must be a target specific to that organism, say a fungus, but not an animal or insect, so no collateral damage is done to the environment.
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Scioto AgriTech is working with a type of cell-penetrating peptide that can deliver biostimulants or biopesticides into plant cells much more effectively than topical application of the biologic agent alone. “Finding the targets is always the hard part in pharma and in agriculture,” Weidner says.
The delivery platform—the peptide—is the technology Scioto AgriTech owns. “The whole goal is to move from broad application of synthetic chemicals,” Weidner says. “Their use is harming our soil and also causes harm to nontarget organisms like pollinators. Even worse, overuse of herbicides and pesticides is causing pests to become increasingly resistant.”
For example, copper sulfate has been used liberally on tomato crops in Florida to treat funguses. That copper accumulates in soils, is harmful to aquatic life and is expensive to remove from drinking water.
The company’s work stems from research by Ohio State University chemist Dehua Pei and plant pathologist Guo-Liang Wang.
Scioto AgriTech is the fourth startup for Pei, Weidner says. Most of his work is currently used in the pharmaceutical industry. One of the companies he co-founded, Entrada Therapeutics Inc., went public in 2021.
Scioto’s first target market is high-value crops such as tomatoes, but Weidner says down the line the company sees potential applications in commodity crops like soybeans.
In 2024, the country’s largest vegetable crop was tomatoes, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But tomato blights, wilts and rots cause massive losses globally each year in the $197 billion industry.
Weidner left her position in venture development at OSU in 2024 to head SciotoAgriTech. “We’re very much in the proof of concept phase,” she says. The company has four antifungal candidates in the pipeline and is working toward greenhouse trials in spring. “We’re going after difficult problems that we know there aren’t solutions for.”
The company incorporated in August 2024 and has received $200,000 in grant funding from the Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund. Rev1 Ventures is also a funder, and SciotoAgriTech has a lab at Rev1’s Kinnear Road facility.
Weidner says the company is in the middle of a seed funding round to raise money for greenhouse and field trials taking place next year.
About Scioto AgriTech
Location: Rev1 Labs, 1275 Kinnear Road, Columbus
Leadership: Nicole Weidner, co-founder and CEO; Guo-Liang Wang and Dehua Pei, inventors and co-founders
Business: Agritech
Founded: 2024
Employees: 2
Funding: $200,000 Ohio Third Frontier Technology Validation and Start-up Fund grant plus Rev1 Ventures support
Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.
This story appears in the Winter 2026 issue of Columbus CEO. Subscribe now.
