PacBio Enters Agricultural Industry Collaboration with Corteva Agriscience to Develop High-Throughput Plant, Pest and Microbial Sequencing

MENLO PARK, Calif., April 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PacBio (NASDAQ: PACB), a leading provider of high-quality, highly accurate sequencing platforms, announced today a new collaboration with global agriculture company, Corteva Agriscience, to develop custom, end-to-end workflows for plant, pest and microbial sequencing. The project focuses on establishing high-throughput workflows in DNA extraction and library preparation in alignment with the tens of thousands of samples sequenced annually as part of Corteva’s seed and crop protection research and production pipelines.

“This collaboration will allow us to help Corteva Agriscience characterize complex plant and microbial genomes more efficiently,” said Christian Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer of PacBio. “We are proud to provide a sequencing platform to Corteva Agriscience for use in its development of products that help farmers modernize agriculture while driving productivity gains for farmers and resiliency to help solve the problem of feeding the world.”

As the world’s population expands and a greater burden is put on food production, new methods are needed to keep pace with agricultural demand. Scientists are turning to modern genomics technology to sustainably meet this challenge. Biological insights gleaned from high-quality genomic data are used to characterize genes of interest, enhance marker development, and combat pests and diseases at the molecular level.

“We see great potential in digital technologies, new seed product development tools like CRISPR-Cas gene editing, and the next generation of crop protection solutions,” said Greg May, Genomics Technologies Lead at Corteva Agriscience. “Genome sequencing technology, especially when it has both long read lengths and high accuracy, is a key tool to unlocking the potential in these development areas. Using this technology at scale can help speed up the research and product development process. Corteva Agriscience’s expertise in ultra-high throughput sample processing positions the company well to quickly and effectively implement these novel genomic workflows.”

The initial phase of the collaboration, aimed for completion in the third quarter of 2022, will be developing the scaled DNA extraction and library preparation workflows to take advantage of the extensive collection of Corteva crop, pest and microbial samples. Upon success in the development of these workflows, the collaboration will look to expand sequencing capabilities alongside the sample preparation workflows.

“Working together with the industry-leading R&D organization at Corteva Agriscience to address the unique challenges of plant and microbial DNA extraction and library preparation is the most efficient route to implementing high-quality, long read genomics at scale,” commented Jonas Korlach, Chief Scientific Officer at PacBio.

To learn more about the benefits of HiFi sequencing in agrigenomics, visit www.pacb.com/agrigenomics.

About PacBio

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB), is empowering life scientists with highly accurate long-read sequencing. The company’s innovative instruments are based on Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) Sequencing technology, which delivers a comprehensive view of genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes, enabling access to the full spectrum of genetic variation in any organism. Cited in thousands of peer-reviewed publications, PacBio® sequencing systems are in use by scientists around the world to drive discovery in human biomedical research, plant and animal sciences, and microbiology. For more information, please visit www.pacb.com and follow @PacBio.

PacBio products are provided for Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to future availability, release dates, uses, accuracy, advantages, quality or performance of, or benefits or expected benefits of using, PacBio products or technologies, the suitability or utility of such products or technologies for particular applications or projects, including in connection with crop breeding and crop protection product development; and other future events. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, changes in circumstances and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond PacBio’s control and could cause actual results to differ materially from the information expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made in this press release. Factors that could materially affect actual results can be found in PacBio’s most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including PacBio’s most recent reports on Forms 8-K, 10-K, and 10-Q, and include those listed under the caption “Risk Factors.” PacBio undertakes no obligation to revise or update information in this press release to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available.

PacBio Contacts

Investors:
Todd Friedman
+1 (650) 521-8450
ir@pacb.com

Media:
Lizelda Lopez
pr@pacb.com