TAM-IS BioSolutions, a Philippine agricultural biotechnology research project based in Bacolod City, secured the prestigious ScaleX Award at the Tech Planter Demo Day Asia Final 2026. The event was held on August 27 at the MRANTI Innovation Park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Presenter and pitch speaker Charles Justin Gan, a native of Silay City, represented the research team on stage against top deep-tech entries from Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines. Notably, TAM-IS BioSolutions stood out as one of only two Philippine teams representing the country at the international stage.
Photo: Charles Gan
The international victory marks a major milestone for Western Visayas and the Negros Island Region, long recognized as the Sugar Capital of the Philippines, where sugarcane farming has faced mounting pressure from declining crop yields, degraded soils, pest infestations, and rising fertilizer costs. The recognition in Malaysia highlights a homegrown microbial breakthrough capable of reversing these agricultural losses directly at the field level.
The success of the project is defined by a three-part progression through the Leave a Nest TECH PLANTER program. Leave a Nest (LAN) is a Japan-headquartered knowledge manufacturing company founded in 2002 by graduate students in science and engineering, with a corporate vision of “Advancing Science and Technology for Global Happiness.” LAN created TECH PLANTER, a global deep-tech pitch and acceleration program designed to discover early-stage science and technology seeds from academic institutions and serve as a planter to develop them into viable commercial businesses.
2024: Undergraduate Thesis and Initial Practical Discovery
The roots of this success trace back to laboratory work conducted by a student research group utilizing facilities at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City. Under the mentorship of Dr. Joval Martinez, who holds a doctorate degree in microbiology from Tokyo Metropolitan University, the undergraduate researchers formed a team called “The 4 Phosphateers”. This original thesis team included Charles Justin Gan, Jed Reysoma, Jules Vern Garcia, and Rein Nillos, with Charles Justin Gan serving as the Phase 1 project lead and pitch speaker.
Working with bacterial strain JQTJ1 sourced from a local hot spring on the island, the team characterized its performance in soil within a simulated agricultural setting. Their evaluations determined that the bacteria effectively makes bound phosphorus more available while reducing the synthetic input costs needed for farming.
The project secured its first major victory when The 4 Phosphateers emerged as the Grand Winner of the inaugural Visayas TECH PLANTER Demo Day in August 2024. This initial victory was crucial, as it secured vital funding during the early stages of discovering the bacteria’s potential, providing an undergraduate thesis project with the necessary backing and validation to continue.
2025–2026: Incubation Support and Real-World Field Validation
Driven by this early success, Dr. Joval Martinez established Co-Lab Life Sciences in 2025 as a biotechnology startup and incubator. Built specifically to support young Visayan researchers, the goal was to ensure their scientific talent could directly transform the regional economy through commercialized discoveries. The Co-Lab board actively supported the team, providing essential financial funding, operational resources, strategic networking, and marketing assistance to scale the TAM-IS BioSolutions project, coined from a local word tam-is, meaning sweet, and standing for Thermophile-Activated Microbial Inoculant System.
Now operating with the backing of the Co-Lab board, primary scientific researcher and current Project Lead Kelcie Jacob, alongside Phase 1 lead and pitch speaker Charles Justin Gan, biologist Ysha Delfin, and Co-Lab team members Kyle Taruc, May Therese Caldo, Kristine Jison, and John Benneth, formulated a specialized microbial bioenhancer. They pushed the technology from the lab into active field trials in Murcia and Bago to restore soil and plant health and boost sucrose output in declining sugarcane fields.
This rigorous field testing culminated in their second major milestone: achieving a unanimous decision from the judging panel to earn the National Grand Winner title at the 10th TECH PLANTER in the Philippines National Finals. The team also received the UntroD Capital Asia Award. UntroD Capital Asia operates as the venture capital arm of the Leave a Nest Group, focusing on funding and catalyzing early-stage deep-tech innovations. The significance of the National Grand Winner title lies in its formal recognition that the project’s laboratory findings were successfully anchored in real-world agricultural settings. This national victory also secured the honor of representing the country internationally.
2026–2027: ASEAN Expansion, ScaleX Award, and Commercial Launch
Because of success at the national level, the team advanced to Malaysia to compete at the TECH PLANTER Asia Final. Pitching to a global delegation of corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and industry partners, pitch speaker Charles Justin Gan represented the team on stage as the project secured the ScaleX Award. ScaleX is a specialized corporate and partner prize awarded during the TECH PLANTER Asia Final, specifically structured as a Malaysian AgriFood Tech Scale-up Platform to recognize deep-tech innovations with high scalability potential.
This third victory represents the project’s gateway to ASEAN expansion. The ScaleX Award grants the TAM-IS BioSolutions research project access to regional living lab facilities and dedicated program support for multi-country field validation trials across Southeast Asia in 2027. Furthermore, it provides dedicated product development program support, paving the way for the expected commercial release of their flagship microbial sugarcane enhancer, Cane Booster, by 2027.
