Explore the Agenda
7:00 am Registration & Networking
7:55 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Transforming Crops with Delivery Breakthroughs to Accelerate Breeding & Improve Resilience
8:00 am Gene Editing: From Concept to Product in Underutilized Crops
- Opportunities and challenges to improve underutilized crops in a post-CRISPR world
- Editing and design-build-test tactics to quickly progress from product concept to performing variety
- Strategies to support the production of a commercial variety (and not just a novel technology)
8:30 am Triumph over Trials: Turning big biotech ideas into a commercial coup
- Pioneering the first consumer-focused GMO, OSF parlayed a bold idea into commercial reality
- Fast-tracking innovation in specialty crops by leveraging its early biotech commercial success and a positive gene editing enabling environment
- Delivering CRISPR-derived products for people and planet to solve urgent challenges facing our food system
9:00 am Innovating Gene Editing in Underutilized Crops for Accelerated Design-Build-Test Cycles
- Solving genotype dependency in temperate cereals by applying transformation breakthroughs in wheat and barley for breeding programs
- Achieving transgene-free precision edits in grape cultivars through protoplast transfection and advanced delivery strategies
- Accelerating design-build-test cycles by leveraging regeneration-focused approaches, targeted DNA insertion, and plant cell-based assays
9:30 am CRISPR Leaders Fireside Chat: Advancing Gene Editing Delivery in Challenging Crops
- Benchmarking delivery efficiency by clarifying regeneration and fertility criteria to guide go/no-go decisions
- Capturing practical solutions for overcoming genotype dependence in crops such as citrus, cocoa, vines, and brassicas using emerging methods like meristem and pollen electroporation
- Integrating transgene-free technologies and exploring novel delivery approaches to accelerate adoption and market readiness
10:00 am Morning Refreshments & Speed Networking
Multiplex Editing & Trait Stacks Driving Agronomic Gains Towards Commercial Scale
11:00 am Advancing Multiplex Editing as a Breeding Platform for Trait Innovation
- Positioning CRISPR as a scalable breeding tool to enable simultaneous editing of multigenic traits for agronomic and disease resistance gains
- Integrating enabling technologies to improve multiplex efficiency and reduce development timelines across diverse crop types
- Leveraging third-party collaborations to accelerate trait stacking and expand the scope of gene editing applications
11:30 am Application of Cibus’ Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS®) to the Development of Two Herbicide Tolerant Traits in Rice
- Utilizing Cibus RTDS to develop two herbicide tolerant (HT) traits in rice; need for productivity traits like HT for rice growers and producers; overview of Cibus partnership business model
- Advancement of Cibus herbicide tolerant rice traits through product development, field validation, quality assurance, and regulatory clearance; pre-commercial considerations for launch in North America and South America
- Working with regulatory authorities to enable and expand the use of Cibus RTDS operations to crops like rice that require quarantine measures; looking ahead, next steps for bring Cibus HT Rice Traits to market
12:00 pm Novel Technology Platform to Unlock Natural Genetic Diversity in Crops
- Integrating a recombination-based platform with other crop improvement technologies to expand trait stacking options and reduce product development bottlenecks
- Collaborating across startups and partners to co-develop platform applications that unlock novel genetic diversity for crop improvement
- Positioning Meiogenix technology for commercial readiness to accelerate field deployment
12:30 pm Lunch
AI Guided Target Discovery for Faster Trait Wins
1:30 pm Prioritizing Targets Using AI Models for Gene Regulation
Inspired by nature: combining evolutionary biology and AI/ML to deliver yield traits
- Training machine learning models on large scale gene expression data
- Generating custom data sets to fine tune AI models
- Case studies demonstrating yield gains in the field
2:00 pm Reimagining Trait Discovery with Agentic AI & Multi-Omics Integration
- Using proprietary diversity panels and applying machine learning to accelerate trait identification for disease resistance and quality improvement
- Comparing AI-driven predictions with conventional statistical methods to validate insights and enhance discovery accuracy
- Building domain-specific large language models to support plant scientists with multiomics data interpretation and faster decision-making
2:30 pm Afternoon Refreshments
Engineering Stress-Tolerant Crops Through Promoter Optimization and Next-Gen CRISPR Platforms
3:30 pm Unlocking Trait Potential Through Precision Modification of Promoter & Coding Regions
- Achieving precise control of gene expression through high-throughput screening of promoter variants for enhancing key agronomic traits
- Advancing drought resilience and herbicide tolerance programs by optimizing regulatory and coding regions to improve gene performance
- Improving CRISPR gene editing processes with the DIPPER™ platform by providing validated promoter and coding variants
4:00 pm Exploring Next-Gen Delivery Systems for CRISPR Editing in Plants
- Exploring novel nucleases and delivery platforms to expand editing precision and crop applicability
- Streamlining transformation workflows by removing the regeneration step for greater simplicity and efficiency using EDGE
- Applying emerging editing technologies to unlock new trait possibilities and reduce development bottlenecks
4:30 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Conference Day One
4:45 pm Drinks Reception
Wrap up the day with a relaxed networking session – reconnect with familiar faces and spark new conversations with fellow industry and academic experts driving genome-edited agriculture forward.