Page 60 - Breeding Edge ebook

2014 to perfect the CRISPR/Cas9 tool and develop new human disease therapies. Some of their early
achievements included improving efficiency of gene replacement and a new approach toward a
treatment for sickle cell disease. That promising approach generated a $4 million investment from the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Berkeley News reported in 2017.

Armed with significant new funding, IGI, led by Doudna as executive director, relaunched with plans to
use a portion of the funding to solicit research proposals in the areas of human health, agriculture and
microbial ecology.

Just last month, IGI selected 24 new research projects across three academic institutions (Berkeley, UC-
San Francisco, and UC-Davis). The agriculture program area is seeing the largest growth, with the
addition of 11 new projects, IGI reported.

In the area of human health, IGI also plans to work with the Bay Area’s Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a
collaboration among UC Berkeley, UCSF and Stanford University launched in 2016 with $600 million
in funding from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who is a
UCSF pediatrician. Doudna is a member of the organization’s Science Advisory Group.

Researchers anticipate that new precision tools and systems will be crucial in solving human health
problems, but in the short term, many of the advancements could apply to agriculture.

“I think there are going to be as many or more applications of CRISPR-Cas9 in plants than there
are in the biomedical area,” Brian Staskawicz, a UC-Berkeley professor of plant and microbial biology
who will direct the agricultural arm of the IGI, said in an interview with the Berkeley News. “In
California alone, we grow 300 different crops, many of them improved by standard cross-
breeding, which introduces all sorts of undesired traits along with the one you want. CRISPR-
Cas9 allows us to introduce genes with a level of precision that we have not been able to do in the
past and potentially cut four to five years off breeding cycles.”

IGI is also working with crops at risk around the globe, like the cacao beans used to make chocolate.
Over half of the world's chocolate now comes from two West African countries: Côte d'Ivoire and
Ghana where the cacao trees are at risk from disease and climate change, according to Climate.gov. In
an effort supported by food and candy company MARS Inc., IGI scientists are developing CRISPR
editing technologies to alter cacao trees that will be resistant to both viral and fungal diseases.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest plant breeding companies for major crops like corn, soybeans and
wheat are investing in their own proprietary research as well as collaborating with Doudna and others.

For example, in 2015, DuPont and Caribou Biosciences jointly announced a strategic alliance, allowing
both firms to cross-license their respective patent portfolios. As part of the deal, DuPont received
exclusive intellectual property rights for CRISPR-Cas technology applications in major row crops, and
non-exclusive rights in other agricultural and industrial bioscience applications.

The alliance between DuPont and Caribou involves a multiyear research collaboration with scientists
from the two organizations focused on enhancing the breadth, versatility and efficiency of the core
CRISPR-Cas toolkit. DuPont also has made a minority equity investment in Caribou to further
strengthen the working relationship.

But Doudna and the folks at UC Berkeley aren’t the only game in town when it comes to
developing CRISPR and other precision editing tools. In fact, there are ongoing legal disputes over

58 www.Agri-Pulse.com