DuPont, Arzeda Working Together to Enhance Agricultural Productivity

DuPont and Arzeda Corp. recently announced a technology collaboration to develop new traits to increase agricultural productivity.

Under the agreement, DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred will use novel enzymes designed by Arzeda to develop next-generation seed traits in crops of worldwide agricultural importance such as corn, soybeans, rice, cotton and canola. Arzeda uses groundbreaking technology to rapidly design and screen novel enzymes that don’t exist in nature and are inaccessible using traditional approaches.

“Arzeda’s tools are a perfect fit with our gene shuffling technology to enable the development of industry-leading products to increase productivity for our customers worldwide,” said John Bedbrook, DuPont vice president – Agriculture & Nutrition R&D. “We are pleased to work with Arzeda, the industry leader in protein engineering and designing enzymes with novel activities.”

According to David Baker, one of Arzeda’s founders and professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, “I’m very pleased and excited to see technology developed in my lab applied to the pressing global problem of agricultural productivity.”