The (DTC) unveiled its latest startup this week with the launch of Spearhead Bio, which has developed a tool to complement existing gene editing techniques such as CRISPR.
The technology “has a clear value to improving the efficiency and speed” of gene editing, according to DTC, a subsidiary of the in St. Louis, Missouri.
At the tool’s core is Transposase Assisted Homology Independent Targeted Insertion (TAHITI) technology, which enables faster and more controlled introduction of genes into both transgenic and non-transgenic crops.
CRISPR is like scissors, says Spearhead Bio founder and chief science officer Keith Slotkin, who also invented TAHITI. It’s good at excising or knocking out genes, but if you want to put those genes elsewhere, it’s very difficult to do so with precision.
Random insertion of these genes can disrupt other genes and cause problems.
“If you have a trait, it needs to go in a certain place,” he says.
TAHITI enables genetic material—what Slotkin calls “the transposable elements”—to be inserted at a very specific location in the genome. Not only is this necessary for overall gene expression and function, it also allows for plants that could be more resistant to disease and/or pests, and producer greater yields.
Slotkin says TAHITI is using systems already present in the plant.
“All genomes, over evolutionary time, are rearranging and mixing pieces, cutting themselves out and inserting,” he explains.
In nature, these DNA sequences move around in “a random, uncontrolled manner” that can take millennia. The value of Spearhead Bio’s tech is that it can execute this process “faster and in a more controlled way.”
He believes CRISPR’s inability to do this precisely is what has held the technology back when it comes to plants. In that sense, TAHITI is very much a complimentary tool to CRISPR, and working together, the two could result in more robust crops that can in many cases get to market faster.
‘This technology is solving a real problem’
TAHITI is the work of result of many years of work by Slotkin, a research scientist and biologist who spent nine years at the Ohio State University before moving to the Danforth Center in St. Louis.
A key driver behind that move was the chance to work with actual companies, file IP, and participate more in the commercial agtech world, he says.
“The university [Ohio State] wasn’t against it, they just weren’t terribly savvy with the commercial world. Part of what attracted me to the Danforth Center was the potential to work with companies and potentially even start a company.”
DTC CEO Tom Laurita, who now also serves as CEO of Spearhead, has worked with Slotkin for the last few years at DTC and calls him “a very entrepreneurial principle investigator.”
After due diligence on the technology, market, IP, and regulatory aspects, and after talking to major ag companies about the tech, the conclusion was obvious: TAHITI was a great candidate with which to start a company.
“This technology is solving a real problem. This has been one of if not the major obstacle to CRISPR being more broadly viable in plant science and agriculture—this ability to do targeted insertion and do it efficiently.”
Laurita goes as far as to say TAHITI could be “the most impactful new technology to come out of the Danforth Center.”
Crop- and trait-agnostic tech
Spearhead Bio is the third startup to come out of Danforth Technology Company in as many years.
Thus far it has secured investment commitments from Rovaq Ventures, St. Louis BioGenerator, Hjelle Consulting Group, and Alta Grow Consulting, among others.
The startup’s advisory board includes multiple experts in biotechnology and plant breeding, including ex-Bayer/Monsanto biotech leader Larry Gilbertson, Jon Lightner, a former biotech VP at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and Jerry Hjelle, president of Hjelle Advisors.
For now, Slotkin says his company is continuing to refine the technology and “iron out any wrinkles” in it.
He adds that where the technology is most proven out so far is with soybeans, which provide “a real tangible market.”
However, there are other uses for the tech, including in cassava and cowpeas, and some vegetable crops.
“We’re so new we’re trying all the different potential models,” says Slotkin. “There are lots of different ways we could use this technology to create the specific arrangement of DNA the user wants. We’re agnostic to what kind of trait or crop.”
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