It may look like an innocent green plant, but its name evokes something far closer to a robot or interstellar rocket. Neo Px is a bioengineered plant capable of purifying indoor air at an unprecedented scale, the first in a potentially long line of such super-powered organisms. “It’s the equivalent of up to 30 regular houseplants in terms of air purification,” said Lionel Mora, co-founder of startup Neoplants.
“It will not only capture, but also remove and recycle, some of the most harmful pollutants you can find indoors.” Five years ago, the entrepreneur met Patrick Torbey, a genome editing researcher, who dreamed of creating living organisms “with functions.” “There were plants around us, and we thought that the most powerful function we could add to them was to purify the air,” said Mora, during a tour of a rented greenhouse in Lodi, California, two hours from San Francisco.
Protected from the elements, several thousand modified pothos plants, green speckled with white, awaited their turn to be potted, packed and shipped. The French startup began selling its first products in the United States in April. The United States was a particularly promising first market, since many Americans already widely use air purifiers.
“We do our best to send as many plants as possible every week, but it’s not enough to meet demand for now,” said Mora. Wildfires Americans have a keen appreciation for cleaner air given all the recent “problems associated with wildfir.
