Our Work
2Blades has pioneered a new model for accelerating discoveries in plant science into impact for agriculture.
Advances in plant science have brought about tremendous gains in the understanding of plant immunity and how plants protect themselves from pathogens and pests, yet there has been limited progress in putting these insights to work for agriculture.
2Blades bridges this gap by translating research in durable disease resistance into practical applications for commercial agriculture and smallholder farmers. We achieve this aim by working with partners across the Agricultural Innovation Chain, applying a private sector mindset with a non-profit scope to discover, advance, and deliver validated biotech solutions to crop losses caused by diseases, pests and a changing climate.
How We Work
We advance the most durable, effective, and environmentally-friendly approach to fighting crop pests and diseases - building protection directly into the DNA of the seed.
Conventional approaches to fighting crop diseases – namely, crop protection chemicals and conventional breeding – have helped to protect harvests, but they have limitations. Chemical sprays can control some but not all diseases, and they are costly and pose potential risks to human health and the environment. Conventional breeding is also limited by the repertoire of existing resistance genes within a plant and requires considerable time and space for backcrossing out undesired traits. With both interventions, pathogens will overcome single mode of action resistance and crop chemicals.
2Blades overcomes these limitations with in-depth molecular knowledge of plant immunity and pathogens and new methods that expand the pool of resistance genes. With AI-guided discovery tools, we can scan crop relatives and identify an almost unlimited number of genes to thwart specific pathogens or pests.
We seek to simplify breeding with long-lasting genetic disease solutions made up of molecular stacks of resistance genes with different modes of action to create durable protection that enables farmers to significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for chemical sprays.
2Blades Group Leader, Dr. Josiah Mutuku, observing the growth of an isolate of Fusarium graminearum.
How We Do It
We conduct in-house R&D at our labs in the United States and the United Kingdom in collaboration with academic and industry partners. These programs target the most intractable pathogens that threaten broad acreage and food security crops.
Additionally, 2Blades manages a portfolio of our own and in-licensed technologies encompassing specific traits and enabling technologies to fight plant disease. We use tiered cost licensing of traits and technologies based on the size of the licensee and scope of use.
We recognize that there is an urgent need for the development of disease resistant crops in food-deficit countries, and consequently this is a major focus of our activity. In such cases, we aim to provide innovations at low or no cost to non-profit organizations working on behalf of smallholder farmers.