We have been selected as a Fellow for the Compute for Climate Fellowship. Launched by International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), an organization under the auspices of UNESCO, and Amazon Web Services, Inc.(AWS), the Compute for Climate Fellowship is a global program offering climate tech startups fully-funded proof of concepts (PoC) using advanced cloudcomputing to tackle some of the hardest challenges created by climate change.
Our mission:-
This opportunity has supported our efforts to make agriculture more sustainable. We are building a sustainable and resilient food system by accelerating the evolution of crops with biotechnology. We have developed a crop genetics platform leveraging AI and gene editing to deliver genetic solutions to tackle some of the biggest challenges to our food system.
Our challenge and our solution:-
Our global food system faces pressure to reduce its environmental footprint and simultaneously build resilience against climate change.
We believe genetic innovation is key to providing a solution as adding more inputs (like fertiliser) is no longer working .
Delivering genetic solutions requires understanding the language of plant DNA and then rewriting the DNA.
We have developed a platform to understand and evolve crop DNA to achieve a reduced need for inputs, lower waste and create more resilient crops. More specifically we have developed CRE.AI.TIVE V4 state of the art sequence to expression algorithm with wet lab validation and achieved design-led native gene activity modulation. The research was published in a scientific pre-print https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.05.626999v1
Without AWS, this would not have been possible
William Pelton, the company’s chief executive says
“Things are changing so fast now, both in terms of climate change and human population growth, thatI don't think traditional breeding can keep up any longer. The technologies that can dramatically speed up this process are ready to be used and need to get out there.”
And
Dr Nicolas Kral, chief technology officer says
“Plants already have the genetic solution to stressors such as drought, but it’s a case of switching on exactly the right part of the code. Until now, you don’t have a way to turn genes on scalably. Existing methods took years and weren’t always successful”
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