The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd.

ALAMEDA, Calif. , May 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- genXtraits Inc. (genXtraits) today announced that it has expanded its license and collaboration agreement with The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (Plant & Food Research) to apply proprietary technology for increasing Vitamin C levels in crops. genXtraits and Plant & Food Research entered an agreement in late 2023 under which genXtraits received an option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license under Plant & Food Research’s patents to develop and commercialize certain crops with the elevated vitamin C trait. Having met contractual requirements over the past 18 months, genXtraits has now exercised its exclusive commercial license, as well as broadening the scope of licensed applications. genXtraits’ expanded license includes major row crops, such as corn and soybean, as well as a broad range of bioenergy crops in addition to the original suite of licensed species, which included tomato, potato, peppers and eggplant. Plant & Food Research has retained commercial rights in specific areas, for example including applications in pipfruit, kiwifruit, berryfruit and grapes. The base license comprises genetic trait technology for elevating the levels of vitamin C in plant cells, which was co-developed by Dr. Roger Hellens, the co-founder of genXtraits, when he was previously a project leader at Plant & Food Research. “Vitamin C is a very potent cellular protectant against oxidative damage,” said Dr. Hellens. “This particular trait provides a double whammy in terms of its benefits. Higher levels of vitamin C in foods like tomatoes and potatoes can provide a dietary benefit, since the compound promotes iron uptake by the human gut. This could help combat anemia, which is a major problem in many countries, especially those with a predominantly vegetarian diet. Additionally, Vitamin C defends crop cells against stress caused by drought and disease, which means it can also act as a yield stability trait that protects overall crop yield.” Dr. Peter Cook, General Manager Business Development at Plant & Food Research noted, “We are delighted to expand our partnership with genXtraits. genXtraits has established a unique technical platform, which can deliver novel traits through gene edits that increase the levels of regulatory proteins in crop cells. Their platform has already delivered improvements to the base inventions in the patents owned by Plant & Food Research. Under the terms of the deal, Plant & Food Research enjoys a license-back under this new IP from genXtraits for application in its core crops.” Dr. Oliver Ratcliffe, CEO of genXtraits commented, “Given the complementarity of genXtrait’s platform with the technology licensed from Plant & Food Research, it made perfect sense to broaden our collaboration. Our shared goal is to implement this important trait in as many crops as possible. To this end, we are looking to add additional partners to participate in our collaboration, especially for applications in corn, soybean, and potatoes and we are actively seeking licensees for the vitamin C trait.” About genXtraits: genXtraits is a California-based crop genomics company, which was founded in late 2022 by plant biotechnology industry veterans. The firm’s unique selling point is its STRM™ platform for the delivery of dominant genetic traits, which stem from simple gene edits that elevate the cellular levels of important regulatory proteins. The company is focused on developing the next generation of crop traits, which will both protect crop yield in the face of climate change and provide consumers with more delicious and healthy food choices. For more information, please visit: https://genxtraits.com/ Contact: Dr. Oliver J. Ratcliffe (contact@genxtraits.com) About Plant & Food Research: The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited is a Crown Research Institute established under the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992. Plant & Food Research uses world-leading science to support the food sector in improving ways to grow, fish, harvest, prepare and share food. The organization has close to 1,000 people that work across New Zealand and the world to help deliver healthy foods from the world’s most sustainable systems. For more information visit: https://www.plantandfood.com Contact: Emma Timewell, Communications Manager (emma.timewell@plantandfood.co.nz)

A research team has developed a sensing technology that can detect whether a substance was exposed to light using metahologram. During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, an incident occurred where vaccines exposed to room temperature had to be discarded. Biomedical substances, including vaccines, risk deterioration if not stored properly, so strict management is required during production and storage. In particular, exposure to light may reduce the vaccine's efficacy, so it is important to check whether it has been damaged by light exposure. Recently, a POSTECH research team led by Professor Junsuk Rho (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering) and Ph.D. candidate Joohoon Kim (Department of Mechanical Engineering) has collaborated with Dr. Jonghyun Choi (The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd.) to propose a novel sensor platform that detects light exposure using a "universal metahologram," which can not only operate under all states of polarizations, but also transmit multiple lights. A metahologram made of metamaterials is a technology that displays different holographic images depending on the direction of incident light. Its applicability in next-generation displays and as security sensor was highly anticipated as it can display multiple images simultaneously. However, a limitation existed in which a metahologram that operates in all incident polarizations could only express a limited number of colors. Conversely, metaholograms that show different colors only respond to certain incident polarizations. To overcome this limitation, the research team successfully fabricated a metahologram that emits brilliant colors regardless of any incident light. Moreover, it was confirmed that this new metahologram can be used as a sensor when attached to a container designed for storing a chemical or biomaterial to detect light exposure. The research team particularly increased the possibility of large commercial manufacturing for metaholograms by developing a printing process that replicates them over flexible substrates. The research findings can be useful for secure packaging and transportation of light-sensitive chemical or biomedical substances. The technology can be applicable in intelligent packaging and labeling to prevent counterfeits and to verify the authenticity of agricultural and fishery products such as honey and kiwi, or secondary processed foods exported by New Zealand. Recently published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, this study was conducted with the support from the POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center program funded by POSCO, LGD-SNU incubation program funded by LG Display, and from the South Korea-New Zealand Joint Research Partnership Program and the Strategic Nanomaterial Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea.