Projects & Technology

2Blades supports and manages programs that advance scientific discoveries into practical applications. 2Blades manages a portfolio of owned or in-licensed technologies encompassing specific traits and enabling technologies to fight plant disease.

Featured Current Projects

Asian Soybean Rust

In the 2001/2002 growing season, Asian soybean rust (ASR) first appeared in Brazil, which produces 30% of all soybean. This airborne fungus can cause yield losses of up to 80% without chemical control. Due to the climate and the large acreage of soybean in Brazil, ASR has reached epidemic proportions.

Asian Soybean Rust Resistance for Africa

Increased African production of soybean can reduce the cost of soy products, create significant economic returns for growers, and improve soil nitrogen for other crops. Yet as cultivation area increases, one disease threatens to undermine the sector – Asian Soybean Rust (ASR)

Corn Mycotoxin Mitigation Initiative

Ear rots of corn are economically important diseases caused by fungal pathogens that also produce poisonous chemicals. 2Blades is searching for new sources of resistance.

(Photo Credit: International Potato Center)

Late Blight of Potato in Africa

Late blight of potato is one of the most historically important crop diseases, playing a major role in the Irish potato famine in the 1840s. Today it remains a major worldwide threat. The disease is a particular problem in Africa as farmers lack access to appropriate chemical control measures and resistant varieties.

NLRseekTM

Plants with multiple NLR receptors against a pathogen can have strong, long-lasting resistance to disease – protecting crops and reducing the need for crop chemicals. Yet conventional approaches for identifying functional NLRs are labor intensive, expensive, and require advanced expertise, until now.