NEMAGENE™ SCN delivers rapid, DNA-based soybean cyst nematode egg counts, tested from the same soil sample you already send in for fertility analysis, and validated against Iowa State's gold-standard method.
Soybean cyst nematode causes up to 40% yield loss and more than $1.5 billion in annual damage to U.S. soybean production. It spreads quietly, builds resistance, and shows no symptoms until the yield, and the margin, are already gone.
Growers test soil fertility on millions of acres every year. SCN egg counting never kept pace. It's slow, labor-intensive, and expensive. NEMAGENE™ changes the math: the same soil sample, the same eggs/100 cc units, about half the cost, and a count you can act on before you buy seed or invest in an expensive nematicide-treated seed.
No additional sampling, no specialty lab. Write "SCN" on your soil submittal form and your egg count arrives with your fertility results in the eggs/100 cc units you already use.
See how it works →NEMAGENE™ counts map to Iowa State's published SCN risk levels and show >90% correlation to Iowa State intervention guidance; a NEMAGENE™ number points to the same varietal and treatment decision the gold standard would.
See the decision logic →Add validated biological testing to your existing soil core workflow using a dried, ground sample, with under 3 hours to results, and up to 96 samples per run.
Bring NEMAGENE™ to your lab →Freyr Diagnostics is building the biological layer of routine soil testing: a multiplex-ready molecular platform designed for soil laboratories, starting with the most economically damaging pathogen in North American agriculture.
NEMAGENE™ SCN delivers rapid, DNA-based soybean cyst nematode egg counts — no extra sampling, no separate lab, no waiting weeks for a microscope count.
SCN is the most damaging pathogen in North American soybean production — and one of the most manageable, if you measure it.
Fields can suffer substantial yield loss with no visible above-ground symptoms.
SCN keeps expanding its range and overcoming the common PI 88788 source of resistance.
Variety selection, seed treatments, and rotation all work — but only when you know your numbers.
SCN testing runs from your existing soil fertility sample — an additional analysis pulled from the routine core already on its way to the lab. No second pass. No separate cores.
Egg counts are reported in eggs/100 cc of soil — identical to the traditional method — so your historical trend data stays useful.
Rapid qauntitative PCR delivers answers in under 3 hours, not days — alongside your nutrient report, in time for seed and management decisions.
Streamlined molecular processing cuts the price roughly in half, making it practical to sample at grid density and actually see field variability.
DNA-based quantification removes counting subjectivity, so trends reflect your field — not which technician was at the microscope.
Proven statistically equivalent to Iowa State's soil-displacement egg count, with independent validation data publicly available.
Iowa State University publishes SCN egg-count categories that guide management: whether to rotate to a non-host crop, select a resistant or premium genetic variety, or add a nematicide seed treatment.
Because NEMAGENE™ reports in those same eggs/100 cc units, every count maps directly onto Iowa State's risk levels. Across the validation study, NEMAGENE™ levels showed greater than 90% correlation to Iowa State intervention guidance versus the gold-standard microscopy count. In practice: a grower acting on a NEMAGENE™ count reaches the same management decision they would have made on a gold-standard Iowa State test — only faster, cheaper, and often enough to track a field over time.
Lower intervention pressure — an option to plant a less expensive, less-resistant variety and protect margin.
Active management warranted — rotate resistance sources and consider a seed treatment.
Justify the premium genetic variety and/or nematicide to defend the yield that's at risk.
Your standard soil fertility cores are all that's needed.
Write "SCN" on your lab submittal form.
SCN egg counts delivered with your soil nutrient results.
Counts map to Iowa State agronomic risk thresholds.
Today most SCN decisions are made on hope, hope that the variety holds, hope the seed treatment was worth it, hope last year's number still applies. When testing is cheap and frequent enough to run like routine fertility analysis, hope turns into a number that drives a better economic decision.
Justify the premium genetic variety or a nematicide seed treatment and protect the yield that's at risk.
Skip the premium. Plant a less expensive variety and improve your margin with confidence.
Adjust rotation before the population costs you a harvest.
Either way you're acting on data, not hoping — managing the two numbers that decide a soybean season: yield per acre and margin per acre.
Know your number — then build your plan. The SCN Coalition, the authority on SCN management, publishes field-tested intervention guidance for every risk level.
NEMAGENE™ SCN was designed for commercial soil laboratories — not adapted from a research bench. It runs from the dried, ground soil sample already moving through your fertility line.
Cielo RT-PCR thermal cycler — 6-channel, 96-well, multiplex-ready open platform.
Pre-aliquoted reagent tubes, 96 tests per kit. Two-channel assay: SCN target + internal control.
Bead-beating tubes and diluent, 96 preps per kit.
Standard supporting equipment (centrifuge, vortex, cell disruptor, pipettes, freezer) — a full list and budget guidance are provided during onboarding.
We don't ship boxes — we stand up testing programs. Our three-day onboarding installs and qualifies your equipment, trains your team hands-on from 8 to 64+ samples per day, and tunes the workflow to your operation. Remote support continues after go-live.
It's the same lab-integration discipline our team used to deploy molecular diagnostics into hundreds of food and beverage laboratories worldwide.
SCN testing demand is growing, driven by state soybean associations, university extension, and agronomists telling growers to "know your numbers."
A new testing method earns adoption with data, not marketing. NEMAGENE™ was validated head-to-head against the Iowa State soil-displacement method and the full study is open for review.
The independent validation was performed by Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories (MVTL) and the Iowa State University, Tylka Nematology Laboratory. Eighteen bulk soil samples (>1 kg each; clay, loam, silt, and sand) were collected across southern Minnesota and processed by standard drying and grinding. Each sample was tested 4–6 times by both methods:
Average enumeration for each sample was compared by Deming regression to test for any statistical difference or bias between methods.
Across the expanded 16-sample set run at MVTL, the Deming regression returned a slope of 0.98 and a 95% CI of (0.70–1.38). In the eight-sample comparison against Iowa State, the slope was 0.93. A slope of 1 is a perfect match, and a confidence interval that includes 1 means there was no significant statistical difference observed between NEMAGENE™ and the gold-standard method in these studies.
Just as important for decision-making: when the counts are translated to Iowa State's management categories, NEMAGENE™ showed greater than 90% correlation to Iowa State intervention guidance — the same actionable answer as the gold standard.
Average egg counts per sample, NEMAGENE™ PCR vs. gold-standard microscopy.
| Sample ID | NEMAGENE™ PCR Count | Microscopy Count | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13,724 | 19,646 | −5,922 |
| 3 | 7,310 | 9,113 | −1,803 |
| 4 | 8,905 | 11,183 | −2,279 |
| 5 | 6,641 | 10,216 | −3,575 |
| 6 | 4,970 | 5,720 | −750 |
| 7 | 3,520 | 5,616 | −2,096 |
| 8 | 24,903 | 24,163 | +739 |
| 9 | 13,287 | 10,876 | +2,412 |
| 10 | 15,530 | 10,695 | +4,835 |
| 11 | 3,661 | 2,487 | +1,174 |
| 12 | 2,289 | 2,228 | +62 |
| 13 | 10,168 | 4,111 | +6,056 |
| 14 | 9,105 | 7,188 | +1,917 |
| 15 | 5,010 | 4,492 | +519 |
| 16 | 335 | 598 | −263 |
| 17 | 1,044 | 2,750 | −1,706 |
| 18 | 2,653 | 2,967 | −314 |
| 20 | 1,183 | 814 | +369 |
Deming regression slope 0.98, 95% CI (0.7014, 1.3832). Slope of 1 = exact match. Source: NEMAGENE™ SCN validation study. Complete data sets for average values available upon request.
"The results obtained with NEMAGENE™ were consistent with results of traditional microscope SCN egg counts conducted by the Tylka Nematology Lab at Iowa State University using shared soil samples." — Dr. Greg Tylka, Iowa State University
Freyr Diagnostics is not a single-test company. We are building a scalable molecular diagnostics platform designed specifically for soil testing laboratories and agronomic networks.
Physical and chemical soil testing became standard because it was validated, scalable, affordable, and aligned with how laboratories work. Biological testing never reached that standard — it stayed slow, specialized, and separate.
Freyr exists to change that. We're building the biological layer that will sit alongside nutrient and physical analysis as a standard component of soil testing. Not specialty. Not outsourced. Not research. Routine.
Soybean cyst nematode is our first assay because it's one of the most economically damaging and measurable biological risks in agriculture. The platform was never intended to stop there.
The NEMAGENE™ system is an open, 6-channel, multiplex-capable platform. In collaboration with soil laboratories and agronomy leaders, we're developing future assays targeting additional nematode species, soil-borne fungal pathogens, emerging crop threats, and biological risk indicators — all running on the same instrument and workflow labs install today.
Growers, agronomists & seed brokers, want NEMAGENE™ at your soil lab? Tell us who you test with. Laboratories, are you ready to evaluate the platform? We'll walk you through validation data, workflow, economics, and onboarding.
New Ulm, MN
(800) 782-3557
www.mvtl.com
As the participating-lab network grows, this becomes a "Find a Lab" directory — pointing growers to the nearest lab offering NEMAGENE™.