Switch Bioworks

Switch Bioworks engineers symbiotic microbes with proprietary genetic circuits to produce nitrogen fertilizer directly on plant roots, displacing chemical fertilizers that account for roughly one-third of crop input costs. Farmers apply the company's microbe-containing powder at sowing; the microbes proliferate alongside germinating plants and activate nitrogen production through a biological switch mechanism. The company was founded in 2022 out of Stanford University and is based in San Carlos, California.