by Two companies which emerged from research carried out at Norwich Research Park have announced significant funding which will help them with the next stages of their development.
TraitSeq and PfBIO have successfully secured grants of around £100,000 from the Launchpad Innovate UK programme. Only seven companies in the East of England received these grants, where the focus is on developing new activity in agri-tech and food technology and driving innovation in food production and sustainability.
TraitSeq has developed technology that uses machine learning methods that allow highly accurate trait performance predictions, which can significantly improve the speed and efficiency of breeding and product selection processes.
This puts TraitSeq at the forefront of empowering the agritech industry to develop high-yielding and climate-resilient crop varieties, animal breeds and agricultural inputs.
TraitSeq CEO and co-founder Dr Joshua Colmer (Image: TraitSeq)
Developed by TraitSeq CEO and co-founder, Dr Joshua Colmer during his PhD research at the Earlham Institute, this technology is particularly effective in tackling the challenges facing crops. This includes drought tolerance and nutrient use efficiency, which are difficult to screen because of their complex genetic interactions and complex responses to environmental conditions.
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Dr Colmer said: “We are delighted to have been successful in our Innovate UK grant application as only a select few companies in the region have achieved this. It greatly adds to the credibility of our business and confirms its potential value and viability. This grant will enable us to make significant progress towards validating our biomarker-based wheat models, commercialize our platform and impact UK breeding.
“We could not have reached this point so quickly without the support of the Anglia Innovation Partnership (the campus management organization at Norwich Research Park) who helped fund our initial exploration and provided us with a development program and access to funders who were question then. we were able to establish and develop our business quickly.
“Being a virtual tenant is a huge help. It means we can rent office space at Centrum when we need it and take advantage of the networking and collaboration opportunities it offers. Norwich Research Park has certainly helped to open new doors.”
PfBIO is a spin-out company from the John Innes Center developing bacteria-based products as viable alternatives to synthetic agrochemicals, which will promote plant health and protect crops from major agricultural diseases.
Many pesticides and other agrochemicals have been – or will soon be – withdrawn from the market due to their negative impact on the environment. Therefore, farmers are moving away from traditional chemical-dominated agriculture to more sustainable and environmentally friendly methods.
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PfBIO has developed technology that helps identify the best plant biocontrol and biostimulatory bacteria strains so that it can create bioproducts tailored to specific crops and crop diseases. The resulting plant treatments are kind to the environment and can be used as effective alternatives to traditional agrochemicals.
PfBIO will use the grant to finance a project to develop a commercial product prototype designed to naturally stimulate plant rooting and fruiting and to recruit its R&D team. Initially, the project will focus on the berry sector, but will also explore other valuable crops.
PfBIO CEO Rosaria Campilongo (Image: PfBIO)
Experiments will be carried out in conditions that closely mimic commercial settings to prove the effectiveness of the generated biocides. If successful, this will generate new investment opportunities and new potential partnerships with manufacturing companies able to support scale-up production of PfBIO.
PfBIO CEO, Rosaria Campilongo, said: “Winning the grant from the Launchpad Innovate UK competition is a huge change for us. It accelerates the development of our first plant biostimulant product and brings us that much closer to bringing it to market.
“Being part of the vibrant Norwich Research Park community has been an integral part of our business growth. Our R&D activities have greatly benefited from being able to use the bioscience platform services, facilities and expertise in institutions such as the John Innes Centre.”
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership (Image: Submitted)
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership, said: “I’m delighted to see TraitSeq and PfBIO making great strides in bringing important new products and technology to market that will have a positive impact on how we grow crops .
“Rosa and Josh are great examples of the many wonderful people working throughout the Park community.”
For more information, visit norwichresearchpark.com
