Bacolod sugarcane biotech wins ScaleX Award at Asia deep-tech final

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

BACOLOD CITY – TAM-IS BioSolutions, a Philippine agricultural biotechnology research project based here, won the ScaleX Award at the TECH PLANTER Asia Final 2026 held Aug. 27 at MRANTI Park in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The team was one of only two Philippine entries among 14 finalists competing against deep-tech ventures from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Japan.

Charles Justin Gan, a native of Silay City and the project’s pitch speaker and Phase 1 project lead, represented the research team on stage before a delegation of corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and industry partners.

ScaleX is a specialized corporate and partner prize structured as a Malaysian AgriFood Tech Scale-up Platform, awarded to deep-tech innovations judged to have high scalability potential.

The award grants TAM-IS BioSolutions access to regional living lab facilities and program support for multi-country field validation trials across Southeast Asia in 2027.

It also provides dedicated product development support, clearing the path for the expected commercial release of the team’s flagship microbial sugarcane enhancer, Cane Booster, by 2027.

The big picture

The recognition arrives as the Negros Island Region, long branded the Sugar Capital of the Philippines, absorbs a punishing crop year.

Sugarcane production in Western Visayas fell to 956,856 metric tons in the first quarter of 2026, down 16.7 percent from 1,148,965 metric tons in the same period of 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority Regional Statistical Services Office VI.

Compounding the decline, an outbreak of the red-striped soft scale insect had been validated across 13,797 hectares in the Negros Island Region as of June 21, with projected losses to sugar and other crops reaching PHP 17.5 billion.

Farmers in the region contend simultaneously with declining yields, degraded soils, pest infestations, and rising fertilizer costs — the precise cluster of problems the TAM-IS technology targets at the field level.

The underlying agronomic problem is phosphorus availability. In acidic, heavily weathered tropical soils, a substantial share of applied phosphorus binds to iron and aluminum compounds and becomes unavailable to the plant, forcing growers to apply more fertilizer to achieve the same uptake.

A thesis and a hot spring

The project began as undergraduate laboratory work at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, under the mentorship of Dr. Joval Martinez, who holds a doctorate in microbiology from Tokyo Metropolitan University.

The original thesis team, which called itself The 4 Phosphateers, comprised Gan, Jed Reysoma, Jules Vern Garcia, and Rein Nillos, with Gan serving as Phase 1 project lead and pitch speaker.

The researchers worked with bacterial strain JQTJ1, sourced from a local hot spring on Negros Island, and characterized its performance in soil within a simulated agricultural setting.

Their evaluations determined that the bacteria make bound phosphorus more available to crops while reducing the synthetic inputs farmers must purchase.

The 4 Phosphateers were named Grand Winner of the inaugural Visayas TECH PLANTER Demo Day in August 2024, a result that secured early funding and validation for what was, at that point, still a thesis project.

From bench to field

Martinez established Co-Lab Life Sciences in 2025 as a biotechnology startup and incubator built to support young Visayan researchers and to route their work into the regional economy through commercialized discoveries.

The Co-Lab board supplied financial funding, operational resources, strategic networking, and marketing assistance to scale the project.

The name TAM-IS is drawn from the Hiligaynon word tam-is, meaning sweet, and stands for Thermophile-Activated Microbial Inoculant System.

Under Co-Lab, primary scientific researcher and current project lead Kelcie Jacob worked alongside Gan, biologist Ysha Delfin, and Co-Lab team members Kyle Taruc, May Therese Caldo, Kristine Jison, and John Benneth to formulate a specialized microbial bioenhancer.

The team moved the technology out of the laboratory and into active field trials in Murcia and Bago, aiming to restore soil and plant health and raise sucrose output in declining sugarcane fields.

That field work produced the project’s second milestone: a unanimous judging panel decision naming it National Grand Winner at the 10th TECH PLANTER in the Philippines National Finals.

The team also received the UntroD Capital Asia Award. UntroD Capital Asia is the venture capital arm of the Leave a Nest Group and funds early-stage deep-tech innovations.

The national title carried formal recognition that the laboratory findings had been anchored in real-world agricultural settings, and it secured the team’s berth at the international competition.

Leave a Nest is a Japan-headquartered knowledge manufacturing company founded in 2002 by graduate students in science and engineering, operating under the corporate vision of “Advancing Science and Technology for Global Happiness.”

The company created TECH PLANTER as a global deep-tech pitch and acceleration program that identifies early-stage science and technology seeds from academic institutions and develops them into commercial businesses.

TAM-IS BioSolutions is a Bacolod-bred agricultural biotechnology research project specializing in soil-restorative microbial inoculants. Developed under Co-Lab Life Sciences, its proprietary inoculant system uses thermophilic soil bacteria to solubilize soil-bound phosphorus, improve crop resilience, and increase sucrose yield in sugarcane plantations.

Co-Lab Life Sciences, founded in 2025 by Martinez, is a private biotechnology startup and incubator headquartered in Bacolod City. It bridges academic research and commercial deployment, empowering Visayan scientists to commercialize deep-tech solutions for regional and global markets.