Accelerating the Next Generation of Micropeptide Crop Protection
6 November 2025 
Mikael Courbet, Micropep Technologies
As agriculture faces mounting pressure to produce more with fewer inputs, innovation in biological crop protection is moving at an unprecedented pace. Micropep Technologies is at the forefront of this transformation with its AI-powered discovery platform, Krisalix, designed to accelerate the development of micropeptide-based biosolutions. In a recent conversation with AgriBusiness Global, Mikael Courbot, Chief Technology Officer at Micropep Technologies, shared how AI is reshaping discovery, expanding the potential of peptide design, and redefining how new, sustainable modes of action are brought to market.
Reshaping Crop Protection Discovery Through AI
Artificial intelligence is unlocking new possibilities for the speed and precision of discovery in crop protection. Courbot explains that platforms like Krisalix are transforming the entire development process by merging generative and predictive AI with biology, chemistry, and manufacturing into a unified system.
“Krisalix enables a transformation from molecule design to lab validation in just weeks instead of months,” he says. “That means we can accelerate discovery timelines for new modes of action across fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides.”
Unlike general-purpose AI tools focused on genomics or imaging, Krisalix was purpose-built for peptide-based biosolutions. It optimizes molecule performance while also predicting manufacturability and stability, capabilities that fundamentally change how biocontrols are discovered and brought to market.
“This represents more than just digital acceleration,” Courbot adds. “It marks a fundamental redesign of how future biocontrols are created.”
Expanding Peptide Design Beyond Fungicides
Micropep’s first biofungicide, MPD-01, is the company’s first major validation of the Krisalix platform, but it’s only the beginning. Courbot envisions a much broader future for peptide design.
“With Krisalix’s modeling capabilities, we can extend peptide design far beyond fungicides and antimicrobial peptide technology,” he explains. “We’re looking into bioherbicides, biopesticides, and even plant resilience and nutrition.”
Krisalix’s virtual screening engine can model millions of peptide candidates and rank the most promising based on binding dynamics, efficacy, and stability. “All we need is a protein target,” Courbot says. “The platform can do the rest in terms of lead generation.”
Because peptides occur naturally in all plants and organisms, the same framework can be applied to a wide range of agricultural challenges, from biotic stress caused by pests and pathogens to abiotic stress like heat or drought. Over time, Courbot expects Krisalix to become a central design engine for sustainable micropeptide-based crop inputs that are safer, faster to develop, and easily adaptable across crops and climates.
Discovering New Modes of Action
One of Krisalix’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to move beyond known modes of action and predict entirely new biochemical interactions between peptides and their protein targets. By combining state-of-the-art protein structure prediction with AI-based peptide binder generation, the platform can simulate how peptides interact with specific proteins to block or modulate their function
“This allows us to identify micropeptides in multiple technologies,” Courbot said. “That includes antimicrobial peptides that disrupt fungal membranes, peptide-protein interaction blockers, and micropeptides that modulate gene translation.”
This systematic approach is essential to combating resistance and expanding the biological efficacy frontier. “By discovering novel modes of action,” he says, “we can help ensure that biological crop protection continues to evolve alongside changing agricultural challenges.”
Streamlining Data for Registration
AI doesn’t just speed up discovery: it also improves the rigor and traceability of the data behind it. Courbot notes that Krisalix enhances reproducibility and transparency in peptide R&D through centralized datasets and robust MLOps pipelines that generate standardized, traceable data packages.
Through integration with the ADOPT Knowledge Engine, all experimental data are centralized to ensure reproducibility and to support the creation of high-quality dossiers for regulatory submissions. “Given that regulatory frameworks for biologicals are still evolving, having a data-driven process is crucial,” Courbot says. “Krisalix not only enables the creation of better molecules but also the data integrity and traceability that regulators need.”
Looking Ahead: AI as a Catalyst for Sustainable Innovation
For Courbot, the work at Micropep is just beginning. “Micropeptides represent a new class of biosolutions that combine the precision of chemistry with the sustainability of biologicals,” he says. “The rapid evolution of AI systems like Krisalix has made the discovery process dynamic. We’re constantly learning and improving predictive performance with each cycle.”
As Micropep’s collaborations expand with leading companies such as Corteva and FMC, Krisalix is poised to define a new generation of crop inputs distinguished by performance, safety, and scalability.
“Ultimately,” Courbot concludes, “AI-driven peptide innovation will advance agriculture toward a future that is more productive, resilient, and sustainable.”
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