WOBURN, Mass., Aug. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN), an agricultural bioscience company that uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed traits for the agriculture and food industries, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent covering the use of C3003 to improve seed yield in crops.
The U.S. patent 10,337,024 is entitled, “Plants with enhanced photosynthesis and methods of manufacture thereof.” Yield10 is the exclusive licensee of this intellectual property from The University of Massachusetts.
The C3003 yield trait is based on a transporter gene derived from algae that can be used to increase seed yield in plants. C3003 is believed to play a role in carbon capture and directing carbon to seed. Yield10 is testing C3003 as a technology to increase seed yield in major crops including Camelina, canola, soybean and corn. Under research licenses with Yield10, two major seed companies are progressing evaluation of C3003 in soybean and forage sorghum, respectively. The Company designated C3003 to be in the commercial development phase in canola based on 2018 field test results where C3003 produced an 11% increase in seed yield.
“This U.S. patent is the first to issue on C3003, representing an important milestone for Yield10,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Yield10. “While we look forward to additional patents being granted on our inventions in 2019 and beyond, we continue to protect our discoveries with new filings. In 2019 alone, we have filed new patent applications related to our GRAIN technology platform as well as the use of our Camelina platform to cost-effectively produce PHA/PHB biomaterials. The growth of our intellectual property portfolio is a direct reflection of the innovative capabilities of our team.”
About Yield10 Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is an agricultural bioscience company which uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed traits for the agriculture and food industries to achieve step-change improvements in crop yield to enhance global food security and develop specialty crop products. Yield10 has an extensive track record of innovation based around optimizing the flow of carbon in living systems. The “Trait Factory” has two components: the “GRAIN” computational modeling platform, which is used to identify specific gene changes designed to improve crop performance, and the deployment of those changes into crops using genome-editing or traditional agricultural biotechnology approaches. The purpose of the “Trait Factory” is to engineer precise alterations to gene activity and the flow of carbon in plants to produce higher yields with lower inputs of land, water or fertilizer. Yield10 is advancing several yield traits it has developed in crops such as canola, soybean, rice, wheat and corn. Yield10 is headquartered in Woburn, MA and has an Oilseeds Center of Excellence in Saskatoon, Canada.
For more information about the Company, please visit the website and follow the Company on Twitter and LinkedIn.
(YTEN-G)
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical, including, without limitation, whether C3003 can be used to increase seed yield in plants and the potential for issuance of any additional patents covering the Company’s intellectual property, constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including the risks and uncertainties detailed in Yield10 Bioscience's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yield10 assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the matters described herein.
Contacts:
Yield10 Bioscience:
Lynne H. Brum, (617) 682-4693, LBrum@yield10bio.com
Investor Relations:
Bret Shapiro, 561-479-8566, brets@coreir.com
Managing Director, CORE IR
Media Inquiries:
Eric Fischgrund, eric@fischtankpr.com
FischTank Marketing and PR