Cibus, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBUS) made headlines today with a major breakthrough in wheat regeneration from single cells, marking what is believed to be the world's first successful regeneration of a wheat plant from single cells. The company's stock moved -0.8% in response to the announcement and is currently trading at $19.66 per share.
Greg Gocal, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Cibus, expressed pride in the team's achievement, stating, "In this tour de force, I am proud of our team's persistence, the result of which is the opening of a scalable gene editing process in wheat, which is a major global crop and an important food staple."
Noel Sauer, Senior Vice President of Research and Development, emphasized the significance of the milestone, adding, "I am so impressed with our entire team, which was able to achieve this important milestone a year ahead of schedule, opening up the potential to accelerate trait development in one of the world's most cultivated crops."
Rory Riggs, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Cibus, outlined the company's long-term goal, stating, "Our long-term goal is to develop a scalable high-speed breeding production system that can develop and produce traits for any seed company servicing any of the five major crops (canola, rice, wheat, soybean, and corn)."
The breakthrough in wheat regeneration from single cells holds significant implications for addressing the challenges faced by farmers globally. Cibus intends to focus on developing a family of traits to address the most significant challenges faced by wheat farmers, initially targeting disease resistance and nitrogen use efficiency.
Wheat, being one of the world's most cultivated crops and a major staple in many diets, presents a substantial market opportunity for Cibus. With the successful regeneration of plants from single cells in a wheat cultivar, the company is poised to make strides in developing improved wheat quality traits, potentially reducing or eliminating allergens such as gluten and further enhancing high fiber wheat.
Cibus' high throughput breeding process, known as the trait machine system, is a key element of the technology breakthrough. This system is a crop-specific application of Cibus' patented rapid trait development system (RTDS) and represents the first standardized end-to-end semi-automated crop specific gene editing system that directly edits a seed company's elite germplasm.
The company's focus on productivity traits for major global crops, such as canola, rice, soybean, and wheat, positions Cibus as a technology leader in high throughput gene editing technology. Using its trait machine process, the company has developed a pipeline of five productivity traits, including traits for pod shatter reduction, sclerotinia resistance, and weed management.
For more details on Cibus' breakthrough in wheat regeneration from single cells and its implications for the industry, the company's full 8-K submission is available here.
