Plant biotechnology startup Plastomics is entering 2021 with a new CEO, a grant and two new full-time scientists — bringing their total to seven.
Martha Schlicher, Plastomics CEO
“A priority is to ensure that the current BioGenerator portfolio companies are successful,” incoming CEO Martha Schlicher told the 4thEst8. Schlicher is a long-time Executive in Residence for the investment arm of BioSTL. “And Plastomics is an important part of that portfolio. So I was able to join the team, working with (former CEO) Sharon (Berberich) to transition, to try to advance the strategy, to position them well for delivering new agricultural solutions for both corn and soybeans as a first priority.”
Plastomics is developing a new way to design crops by editing the chloroplast rather than the nucleus. The chloroplast is the organelle in the plant cell where photosynthesis happens, converting energy from the Sun into chemical energy. This approach has been known since the 1970’s but hasn’t been applied to a commercial crop. Plastomics first worked with tobacco, to prove it’s approach, and is now tackling corn and soybeans.
No word on what prompted the CEO switch, but Berberich is now business development lead at Aker Technologies, another small Missouri ag-tech startup.
Chloroplasts vs nuclei : claimed advantages
- No ‘outcrossing’ (pollen does not carry chloroplasts)
- Can develop new seeds up to 2 years faster
- Traits, such as insect or fungal resistance, expressed at a higher level – making them more efficient
“Now where a lot of the traits that are currently out there from nuclear expression have developed some resistance because of their very successful but broad-spread use, you’re always needing new traits with new modes of action,” Schlicher said. “And, boy, higher expression levels, you know, helps to ensure that that resistance is delayed or doesn’t occur.”
The company is seeking out trait producers, now, to apply some of those seed traits to their soybean platform. Eventually, Plastomics would supply seed companies who, in turn, would sell seeds to farmers. Some potential traits in the modified seeds might express things like fungal resistance and insect resistance – especially cyst nematode resistance.
Some history:
Plastomics was founded in 2016 by Jeffrey Staub and Ralph Bock, raised $2.2-million in seed funding, and an undisclosed venture round from TechAccel in 2018. Plastomics has also been funded by The Yield Lab, Biogenerator, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, The Helix Fund, Missouri Technology Corporation and the St. Louis Arch Angels. Also in 2018, the company converted more than $2-million in debt.
In 2018, TechAccel chief scientific officer Brad Fabbri told AgFunderNews that he was confident that Plastomics will find an early buyer, and exit, as soon as the chloroplast engineering method is ‘cracked’. The article also cites Staub and Berberich as confirming that many, if not all, of the strategic seed players are interested in this technology whenever it is ready.
“I am still ‘bullish’ on the technology and the team at Plastomics,” Fabbri told the 4thEst8. “Speaking for an investor, the work being done by Jeffrey Staub, former CEO Sharon Berberich and current CEO Martha Schlicher has continued to impress me.”
Grants:
In May of 2020 the company landed an SBIR grant for $225,000 from the National Science Foundation, Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships to develop chloroplast engineering for maize (corn). That was followed in November by a grant of an undisclosed sum of money from the United Soybean Board to develop disease resistant soybeans. The company was also inducted into the Wells-Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) in the summer of 2020.
Berberich interview May 2020 – the 4thEst8
