July 30, 2018

By Michelle Pelletier Marshall

The agtech industry is moving at a breakneck pace in its goal of bringing innovations to the sector that will bridge the gap in rising food demand and the ability to sustainably produce the food required for a booming global population. One such company moving the needle through disruptive technologies is Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, TechAccel. Their most recent focus has been capitalizing on partnerships with universities by funding scientific advancements, such as gene editing, and then driving those technologies to commercialization.

The company is currently working on equity investments and engaged science advancement projects with University of California, Davis; Kansas State University; the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center; and a growing list of others. The projects span enzyme production, RNA interference for pest control, epigenetics, animal vaccines, and more.

GAI News spoke to Dr. Anne Britt of the UC Davis Plant Biology Department and TechAccel’s Chief Science Officer Brad Fabbri about their latest collaboration.

ANNE BRITT OF UC DAVIS

Q1: We understand that you recently received a grant through the UC Davis Venture Catalyst Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR™) Grant program with $50,000 in funding provided by TechAccel. Can you explain what the funding will be used for?

I will use this funding with my partners Neelima Sinha and Mily Ron to perform a proof-of-concept trial. We’ll be applying our concept to tomato plants under controlled test conditions.

The proof of concept in this case is to test and further develop the platform technology to deliver gene-editing tools. Once this is validated, there are a number of specific edits that could be considered to improve tomatoes – for example, to improve crops’ resistance to disease, or eliminate undesirable metabolites and antigens. We will know more in about a year, and assuming success, would license our editing technology to seed companies, allowing them to select specific targets.

Q2: How is this project and others like it changing the ag landscape? What is the desired outcome?

Gene editing technologies are creating massive opportunities for rapid introduction of improved traits in plants. The potential is energizing investors, researchers, and global ag firms. The desired outcome is to positively affect our ability to feed people, safely, nutritiousl,y and sustainably by significantly accelerating the rate at which new crop varieties can be developed.

I’m really excited about the potential for modern breeding tools, such as those that my group is working on, to make it feasible to generate many valuable consumer-centric traits. The non-browning Arctic Apple that is beginning to reach grocery stores is an example of such a trait. This apple was produced using GMO technology, but could have been also produced using gene editing. There are companies now using gene editing to advance breeding. For instance, Calyxt has a robust development pipeline with both farmer-centric traits (including herbicide tolerance and disease resistance) and consumer-centric traits (like high-fiber wheat, improved oil composition soy and canola, and a reduced browning potato). And, for example, Monsanto (now Bayer) recently made a major investment in the new gene editing company Pairwise, and we will soon see what they will focus on. 

It is important to point out that using traditional breeding techniques, it is possible to introduce these traits, but not feasible, particularly for so-called minor crops such as fruits and vegetables that do not have the market size to justify very long and expensive breeding efforts. Gene editing and other modern breeding methods have a big potential to change ag by making it technically and economically feasible to introduce traits into crops that will be attractive to producers, and most importantly, consumers.

Q3: Why partner with a venture capital company like TechAccel? What are the benefits to innovation and product development?

TechAccel understands and supports the role of researchers, and is willing to invest to advance promising discoveries, inventions and technologies. This funding helps us move our innovation forward, and can push us toward a faster commercial solution.

BRAD FABBRI OF TECHACCEL

Q1: TechAccel sources, invests in, and acquires early-stage innovations. Why partner with universities towards this objective?

In universities, we find a wealth of subject-matter expertise, excellent research capabilities and facilities, and promising emerging early-stage technologies or startup companies. In working with universities, we found many had innovations that were of such an early technological development stage that made it challenging to secure licenses. An important part of our investment thesis is to work with universities to fund focused development on selected technologies to de-risk and increase the commercial appeal. We partner with universities this way to make early bets on promising technologies.

Many technologies at universities are at a very early stage of technological readiness – too early to be attractive to a commercial partner because it would be just another technology in their research development. TechAccel’s thesis is to provide both capital and strategic/technical guidance to nurture an early-stage academic technology, and to get it closer to “commercial ready”.

Q2: How have you found the return on investment in these collaborations with universities?

We are still too early in our investments to have a return on any of our university investments. By establishing and nurturing partnering relationships with universities, we are finding new opportunities that had not yet appeared on the universities’ portfolio of technology license offerings. We collaborate with the universities to make sure that these new ideas become part of the licensing/commercialization office’s portfolio. TechAccel has chosen to employ a virtual model for progressing R&D, using universities and contract research organizations to carry out our development. Given that we do not need to maintain our own R&D labs, we can be very nimble in use of resources, and this is cost-effective even when we factor in the indirect overhead costs that a university typically charges for funded research.

Q3: What’s next on the TechAccel timetable and product discovery list?

We have a number of new investments in mid to late stages of development, some of which are at universities. Look forward to seeing some new activities in animal health, in addition to plant agriculture. We are actively seeking new opportunities in the broad areas of plant and animal agriculture, animal health and nutrition, and technologies focused on improving food quality and safety. 

In addition to our collaboration with UC Davis Venture Catalyst on its technology commercialization-focused STAIR grant program, we also have a grant program in place with the Donald Danforth Center for Plant Sciences, called the Path to Commercialization Program. We have awarded two grants to Danforth scientists in areas of antifungal and biopesticide research.

For assets that I can currently speak about, we are developing a couple of improvements to wheat for disease and yield at both Kansas State University and UC Davis. We have also invested in EpiCrop Technologies Inc. and are working with them to improve two crops that I’ll not disclose at the present time. This involves funding research at three different universities.

We are too early in the process to have any successful exits, but we have been pleased with the progression of our assets on a path to become more and more de-risked, and closer to commercialization. 

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 Michelle Pelletier Marshall is the managing editor for Global AgInvesting’s quarterly GAI Gazette magazine and a regular contributor to GAI News. She can be reached at mmarshall@globalaginvesting.com.