ºÚÁϳԹÏ

Technology developed at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) has made its way to the private sector. According to , Yield 10 Bioscience has acquired an option to license a technology that increases the oil seed content of canola, soybean and Camelina.

“Jay Thelen, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry, and his team at MU have discovered a unique regulatory mechanism controlling the key step in the metabolic pathway for fatty acid and oil biosynthesis in oilseeds. Based on this discovery, novel gene editing targets for significantly increasing seed oil content in commercially important oilseed crops have been identified and patent applications filed,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Yield10 Bioscience.

“Over the next few months, we will begin to edit these gene targets in Camelina, canola and soybean,” continued Peoples. “This is another example where Yield10 is accessing unique and exciting discoveries from academia and working with the researchers as partners to demonstrate their economic value in major crops. We plan on executing our option and obtaining a worldwide license to the technology for our target oilseed crops in 2017.” 

Christopher Fender, director of the MU Office of Technology Management & Industry Relations, commented, “Healthy, edible oils are important for global food security. Yield10 is assembling a number of advanced technologies focused on boosting yield in oilseed crops, and this technology could be very complimentary to that effort.”

“This technology has the potential to increase the amount of important oils extracted from crops and provide more healthy options for consumers,” ºÚÁϳԹϠInterim Vice President for Academic Affairs, Research and Economic Development Bob Schwartz said. “This is one more example of the great technologies originating from a campus of the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï and the outstanding work of its technology transfer offices.”

Each UM System campus has a tech transfer office that serves as the focal point for entrepreneurship, economic development and technology transfer in their local area. The campuses of the UM System generate more than 160 new inventions each year and engage with commercial partners to help move promising discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. For more information, visit https://umsystem.edu/ums/aa/oipa