Skip to main content
ISMPMI Congress 2025 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Evens)

P-196 - Developing tools for precision genome editing for disease resistance

Thursday, July 17, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Engineering plant-microbe traits

As CRISPR therapies advance through clinical trials, genome editing tools are also enabling significant innovation in agriculture. Gene editing in crops can use modified tools developed for human therapeutics, but plants present unique challenges and opportunities. Pairwise rapidly screens new tools in human cells to focus in on efficient designs, then transfers those learnings to screening in plant protoplasts and stable transformation systems, before using the best versions for trait development. Using these optimized CRISPR-based gene editing tools, Pairwise is transforming major row crops and consumer-facing fruits and vegetables. Our FulcrumTM  Platform relies on efficient cytosine base editors, nucleases, and templated editing tools developed through iterations of this testing. Pairwise applies these tools to edit genes in crops from corn to blackberries to improve yields, enhance eating experience, and to develop disease resistance. By applying our tools to fine tune edits in STAYGREEN genes, we produced edited soy plants with a yield advantage in the presence of Asian Soy Rust and no significant penalty in the absence of disease in field trials. The immediate future promises the direct application of gene editing tools to improve plant yield, performance, and health.