Benson Hill Biosystem Launches Edit Complete Genome Editing System

Benson Hill Biosystems announced the commercial launch of Edit, powered by CropOS, the first complete genome editing system made accessible to partners for the development of improved crops.

The Edit system combines the analytical power of Benson Hill's CropOS computational platform with a portfolio of novel genome editing nucleases to create the first comprehensive genome editing system. Edit is designed to optimize plant characteristics such as flavor profiles, nutrient-density, and environmental sustainability with greater speed and precision than previously possible.

Benson Hill introduced this news at the Future Food-Tech Conference.

"There is an urgent need to redefine the model of crop innovation and drive greater improvement in the health and resiliency of our food system," says Matt Crisp, CEO and co-founder of Benson Hill Biosystems. "Genome editing can help level the playing field, empowering a robust community of innovators to modernize our food system with simpler ingredients and production methods - plant-based proteins and ancient grains, natural disease resistance, and other targets that create more choice for both farmers and consumers."

"The combination of a machine learning-based prediction engine with best-in-class genome editing chemistry affords users of CropOS an unprecedented opportunity to innovate in a rapidly evolving food system," says Dr. Paul Skroch, Vice President of Data Science and Platform Engineering for Benson Hill. "The parallel advancements in AI, big data, and the cloud are converging to address the most substantial challenge for an effective genome editing system: efficiently identifying specific sequence locations in the plant genome to edit. Using an integrated platform, we are accelerating the plant breeding process and more fully leveraging natural genetic diversity as a differentiator in product development."

CropOS is a community platform that empowers companies of any size throughout the food and agriculture value chain to access the most advanced tools in seed innovation without major infrastructure costs or distraction from their core business. Benson Hill's Edit system combines insights from CropOS with a diverse portfolio of novel CRISPR 3.0 nucleases shown to demonstrate broad application and a smaller size for easier delivery.