Pairwise Licenses Gene Editing Tools to CIMMYT to Fast-Track Smallholder Farming Systems’ Transformation

“…I met Haven Baker, a founder of a company called Pairwise, which was started to create fruits and vegetables that are genetically edited but not G.M.O.

“I don’t think we can change people’s minds about G.M.O.s,” Baker said. “But gene editing is a clean slate. And maybe then G.M.O.s will be able to follow.”

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Pairwise, a company pioneering genetics-based innovation in food and agriculture, has developed the world’s first seedless blackberry. Created using the company’s proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform, a complete suite of novel tools for CRISPR application in plants, this is the first time seedlessness has been achieved in any caneberry.

“We are thrilled to share this breakthrough achievement from our talented R&D team. Pairwise scientists have used their deep knowledge of plant genetics, broad suite of CRISPR tools, and multiplex editing techniques to eliminate the hard pits in berry fruit, creating soft, small seeds like those found in grapes and watermelon that are commonly labeled as seedless,” said Ryan Bartlett, Pairwise Chief Technology Officer. “The result is the first seedless blackberry in the world. We expect that this trait will not only transform the blackberry market, but it also lays the groundwork for accelerated progress in removing seeds and pits in many other fruits such as cherries.”

Recent innovations in produce have been rapidly adopted due to the significant benefits they provide consumers, such as improved flavor, consistency, and convenience.  

“The berry variety we edited is consistently sweet year-round and holds up well during shipment; now, consumers will have the option to choose a nutritious blackberry without seeds that also reliably delivers great flavor and quality,” said Haven Baker, Pairwise Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. “Blackberries are a snackable fruit with significant health benefits; however, data indicates that more than 30% of berry buyers do not like the seeds, and many more do not even buy the fruit because of the seeds.”

In addition to creating the first seedless caneberry, Pairwise has successfully edited the same variety to eliminate thorns and create a more compact plant that delivers benefits for harvesters, growers, and the environment. The thornless and compact traits enable more efficient fruit harvesting and improved productivity and profitability for growers. The new compact trait means the plants are smaller and can be planted at a higher density per acre.

With the precision of CRISPR, we’re able to develop these thornless and compact traits without sacrificing consistency in flavor and quality for consumers,” said Baker. “We’re excited to advance these berries into the next phase of product development, including outdoor field trials, as we work toward scaling up and making them available to the public in a few years.”

“A key challenge in our food system is helping people eat more high-quality, healthy foods. As part of our drive to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables, we’re working to provide consumers with new, highly nutritious food options with improved flavor and convenience,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “With a deep understanding of the plant genome, an accurate, efficient, and scalable process, and streamlined pathway to commercialization, we are not only creating new products with our proprietary CRISPR technology, we are creating a new era of innovation in agriculture.”

Learn more about Pairwise and its proven Fulcrum Platform here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

Pairwise, a company pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture, has granted a full technology license to its proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform to Solis Agrosciences. Through this license, Solis will be using Pairwise’s tools to drive innovative solutions to their clients’ global food and climate challenges.

Licensees of the Fulcrum Platform can receive access to Pairwise’s full suite of novel technologies and proprietary tools for applying CRISPR to research, develop, and commercialize products with differentiated plant genetics.

Solis provides robust product design and R&D services to many different plant science clients, offering access to technologies that accelerate scientific breakthroughs and the path to commercialization. Solis will first leverage the Fulcrum Platform to develop new traits. Once a product is ready to move from the R&D stage to commercialization, Solis’ clients can obtain a commercial license through Pairwise to take their products to market.

“Our experienced team utilizes advanced technology platforms to reduce our clients’ product development timelines in traditional row crops as well as specialty crops,” said Susan Martino-Catt, Solis Chief Operating Officer. “Pairwise is pioneering CRISPR in agriculture, and bringing new, advanced solutions to the marketplace. Their Fulcrum Platform can improve R&D efficiency and provides a streamlined commercial pathway for our clients’ products. We are excited to use the Fulcrum Platform to support our current clients and also to engage with a new set of clients, helping them to advance their product pipelines.”

“CRISPR has the potential to transform agriculture and provide enormous benefits to consumers, growers, and the environment,” said Ian Miller, Pairwise Chief Development Officer. “Pairwise’s novel tools and commercial rights have been used to create and deliver new products across many crops, including corn, wheat, soy, canola, bananas, coffee, berries, and cherries. In addition to the products we’ve created, we’re excited to now empower other organizations – like Solis and, by extension, their clients – to develop their own CRISPR-edited products that will deliver the enormous potential of the technology.”

The Fulcrum Platform includes Pairwise-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing – a toolbox which enables not only turning a characteristic on or off, but also tuning it – like a dimmer switch to dial a trait up or down, such as creating a new type of corn with up to 20% more kernel rows.

Important technologies which enable the Fulcrum Platform include Pairwise’s novel SHARC™, base editing, and the REDRAW™ templated editing system.

• SHARC is a proprietary enzyme that works well for cutting, base editing, and REDRAW editing, and is the foundation for a proprietary and comprehensive genome editing toolbox.
• Pairwise’s proprietary base editing and diversification tools enable innovators to “tune” CRISPR edits with great precision. Alongside REDRAW, Pairwise’s templated editing solution, these tools allow access to a wide range of genetic variation, which is key to creating new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than conventional breeding.

“We look forward to the team at Solis using our Fulcrum Platform to accelerate their clients’ product research and working with those clients on licensing commercial rights in the future,” said Miller.

Whether through licensing, collaborations, or in-house product development, scientists leverage Pairwise’s leading CRISPR tools, IP, and full Fulcrum Platform for applications in crops of global importance, including climate-friendly short corn, bananas and coffee, blackberries, leafy greens, and more.

Learn more about licensing the Fulcrum Platform, as well as opportunities to develop new products through a collaborative partnership with Pairwise, here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

About Solis Agrosciences:

Solis Agrosciences is the trusted partner for high-quality AgTech research services. We generate gene-edited and transgenic crops, plant phenotype and efficacy data, and individually tailored research solutions for our startup and corporate customers. Solis’ highly trained and industry-experienced scientists operate in state-of-the-art facilities in the 39 North Ag Biotech district of St. Louis, Missouri. To partner with Solis, visit SolisAgrosciences.com.