Evanston, Illinois, USA
October 29, 2012

Judges of the annual Agrow Awards have selected the Two Blades Foundation (2Blades) and its TAL code technology as one of three nominees for Best Novel Agricultural Technology in 2012. Agrow is the leading supplier of news, analysis and data service for the crop protection industry and each year hosts the leading industry awards for innovation and excellence in crop protection.

The TAL code technology was discovered in naturally occurring Transcription Activatior Like (TAL) effector proteins found in plant bacteria. These proteins have a novel structure that confers highly specific binding to DNA according to a simple cipher or ‘code’. The elucidation of the TAL code enables a range of tools to target proteins to virtually any DNA sequence with high efficiency and accuracy. By targeting proteins to particular locations in the genome, researchers can precisely modulate the genome by fine-tuning the expression of genes or by deleting, adding, or altering the sequence of genes. Small changes produced by this approach are indistinguishable from those produced by other means of mutagenesis but can be achieved with far greater specificity. Targeted genome modifications in plants are useful to improve agronomic traits, including disease resistance, growth and yield, or tolerance to environmental conditions such as drought.

The TAL Code technology was discovered by Ulla Bonas, Jens Boch, Thomas Lahaye, and Sebastian Schornack at Martin-Luther University in Halle, Germany. The Two Blades Foundation holds exclusive rights for commercial uses of the technology in plants. In order to facilitate the widest possible use of the technology in plants, 2Blades has licensed the technology on a non-exclusive basis to a wide range of small and large seed companies. Licensees, including Syngenta Biotechnology, Monsanto, Bayer CropScience, KWS, Mendel Biotechnology and others, will further develop the technology in plants and grant improvements back to 2Blades for use in its mission of improving food security in subsistence agriculture. 2Blades aims to provide licenses to additional companies and institutions in the coming years. Development of research tools in plants and other systems is exclusively carried out by the global biotechnology tools company, Life Technologies.

Awards will be announced November 7, 2012, at the Agrow Awards dinner in London, UK.

Website: http://www.2blades.org/

Published: October 29, 2012