Calyxt enters trait development collaboration with Plant Bioscience

Calyxt Inc. is expanding its focus on developing healthier food products for consumers and farmers through a research collaboration and licensing option with Plant Bioscience Ltd. (PBL).

“Our partnership with PBL would supplement our internal trait development pipeline with new traits that will be pivotal additions to our existing trait portfolio,” Calyxt Chief Scientific Officer Dan Voytas said. “More importantly, it will also help to expedite Calyxt's mission to bring healthier food products to market.”

Using gene editing by the Institute of Genetics and Development Biology on wheat, rice and corn in various stages, Calyxt and PBL can develop new licenses. The companies previously worked together on a licensing agreement of a resistance trait for powdery mildew that destroys wheat crops.

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Calyxt in this new agreement which secures funding for some very exciting research at IGDB and which promises to lead to new crops with a wide range of benefits both for farmers and consumers,” Jan Chojecki, PBL's managing director, said. 

Calyxt, which was founded in 2010 under the name Cellectis Plant Sciences Inc., is based in New Brighton, Minnesota.