Invasive pests drive innovation.
Agragene's precision-guided Sterile Insect Technology (pgSIT) gives growers a targeted way to control damaging pests — one insect at a time. This technology is being developed for some of the biggest insect pests farmers & ranchers face.
Enabling Technology
Agragene's technology enables growers to:
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Target a specific pest at a specific stage in its life cycle.
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Provide safety for crop, the soil, and beneficial insects.
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Build on the success of previous systems by adding precision.
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Take on invasive pests that are difficult to control.
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Building on more than half a century of SIT.
Sterile insect technique (SIT) has helped farmers and public health agencies control damaging pests since the 1950s. The idea is simple and proven: release sterile males of the pest species, and over time the pest population declines because fewer viable offspring are produced.
Agragene's precision-guided Sterile Insect Technology — pgSIT — brings a new level of precision to that proven idea. It uses modern gene-editing tools to produce sterile male insects consistently, at scale, and without the tradeoffs earlier sterilization methods required.
The result is a targeted, dependable way to help growers control specific pests — and it shows up where it matters most: in the field.
1950s
Sterile insect technique (SIT) pioneered; first large-scale program targets the New World screwworm in livestock, eventually eradicating it from the United States. That controlled the pest for decades to come.
1960s–1990s
SIT expands to fruit flies, moths, and other agricultural pests around the world.
2000s
Advances in genetics open new possibilities for producing sterile insects more efficiently.
2010s
CRISPR-based gene editing enables far greater precision in insect biology.
2017
Agragene was formed in 2017 by co-founders at the University of California Riverside and later moved to UC-San Diego to continue their work.
2020
Seed investments begin in Agragene, looking to develop technical proof of concept for commercialize the innovation for agriculture, starting with berry production.
2022
Agragene moves to St. Louis, MO to be in the heart of agricultural innovation.
2024
The first KNOCKOUT™ SWD open field trial is conducted. Additional trials are conducted with academic, USDA, and extension researchers through today.
2025
Agragene submits KNOCKOUT SWD regulatory package to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for review.
2026
USDA New World Screwworm Grand Challenge and FFAR grants awarded; Pairwise Fulcrum® licensing agreement announced to develop Knockout for New World Screwworm. Agragene expands R&D pipeline work to include five additional invasive insect pest targets.
2027
First KNOCKOUT™ SWD moves into field trials pending regulatory approval.
Precision-guided Sterile Insect Technology, in plain terms.
pgSIT gives Agragene a reliable way to produce sterile male insects of a target pest species. Here's how it works — without the jargon.
Step 1 — Two parental lines
Agragene maintains two separate lines of the target insect. On their own, each line lives, reproduces, and behaves normally.
Step 2 — A precise cross
When the two lines are crossed, their offspring inherit a specific, precisely designed combination of genetics. Only males survive that cross, and every surviving male is sterile.
Step 3 — Released to the field
Those sterile males are released into the field, where they mate with wild females of the same pest species. Because the males are sterile, those matings don't produce viable offspring — and the pest population declines over time.
What this means for the grower
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Only sterile males are released. They can't establish a continuing population.
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The crop itself is never modified or treated by the released insects.
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Beneficial insects — pollinators, natural predators — are left alone.pgSIT fits within integrated pest-management programs growers already run.
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Safe for farm workers while providing maximum crop protection.