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8 August 2018Americas

Broad Institute and DowDuPont grant CRISPR agriculture licence

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division of DowDuPont, have jointly agreed to license CRISPR/Cas9 technology to the J R Simplot Company.

It is the first time the two companies have combined to license CRISPR/Cas 9 to an agricultural business.

Simplot shared the news in a statement on Monday, August 6.

Under the companies’ joint non-exclusive licensing framework, Simplot said it will use CRISPR/Cas9 technology and related gene-editing tools to advance food production for farmers and consumers.

Susan Collinge, vice president of Simplot, explained: “These pioneering tools may enable growers to achieve higher yields on less land, resulting in fewer pesticides, water and labour needs while extending the quality of a consumer’s favourite foods.”

Fresh potatoes, avocados, and strawberries are among the fruit and vegetables that suffer huge losses every year due to poor storage or shelf life, but Simplot said the gene-editing tools may be able to significantly reduce these losses.

Neal Gutterson, chief technology officer at Corteva, explained that CRISPR technology offers great benefits to farmers and consumers.

He said: “We applaud Simplot for taking the initiative to broaden their portfolio of food technologies to further enhance sustainability and reduce food waste.”

Simplot currently provides a range of fresh, chilled, and frozen offerings that include potatoes, avocados, and strawberries. The agricultural company is one of the largest potato processors in North America.

“Using gene-editing technology such as CRISPR/Cas9, bruising and browning of potatoes can be reduced, eliminating some of the 3.6 billion pounds of potato food waste each year,” the release said.

Through the use of other genetic techniques, Simplot has already commercialised two generations of its Innate-branded line of potato varieties which had less bruising and fewer black spots.

Issi Rozen, chief business officer of the Broad Institute, said the organisation wants to maximise the scientific impact of CRISPR/Cas9 in agriculture.

“Our joint licensing agreement offers the opportunity to provide much broader access to help researchers reduce food waste, limit pesticides, and improve drought resistance, while promoting safe and ethical uses of groundbreaking technologies,” he added.

Collinge said Simplot is “excited” at the prospect of using CRISPR technology to provide more sustainable produce for the industry.

In other CRISPR news, a biotechnology company in the UK has signed a major supply and licensing agreement based on its platform for CRISPR modification of mammalian cell lines.

Oxford Genetics yesterday announced that it had secured a “multi-million pound” contract with a global e-commerce provider of reagents and tools to research and clinical companies.

The provider was not named.

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More on this story

Americas
6 April 2018   The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed that it will not regulate foods created with gene-editing technology, such as CRISPR.

More on this story

Americas
6 April 2018   The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed that it will not regulate foods created with gene-editing technology, such as CRISPR.