Zymofix, a Flemish biotechnology company developing solid-state fermentation technology for microbial production, has secured €1.9 million in funding from VLAIO, the Flemish Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. The grant will support the €3.2 million MicroFix research project in collaboration with Ghent University to improve the reliability of microbial products for sustainable agriculture.
Advancing Microbial Performance
MicroFix will investigate how Zymofix’s proprietary manufacturing process influences microbial physiology, functional traits, and agricultural performance. Instead of focusing only on selecting microbial strains, the project aims to better understand how production methods affect product consistency and effectiveness.
“Microbial solutions have enormous potential, but their performance is still too unpredictable,” said Emile Redant, CEO of Zymofix. “With MicroFix, we aim to understand how our manufacturing technology (Zyft) influences microbial function, allowing us to design more reliable and effective biological products.”
Research Collaboration
Over the next three years, Zymofix and Ghent University will combine expertise in microbiology, plant science, and data modeling to build a framework connecting manufacturing conditions with microbial traits and crop performance under different environmental conditions.
The project centers on Zyft, Zymofix’s solid-state fermentation platform, which uses agricultural by-products as both a growth medium and formulation material. The research will also explore how this production approach improves product stability while supporting circular use of agricultural resources.
Supporting Sustainable Agriculture
Beyond scientific research, MicroFix is expected to strengthen microbial biotechnology expertise in Flanders, create skilled research jobs, and promote more sustainable and circular agricultural systems.