Type | Privately held |
---|---|
Industry | Agriculture |
Founded | 1997 |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States, Europe, China |
Products | Biotechnology |
Website | http://www.mbi-holdings.com/ |
Mendel Biotechnology, Inc. is a plant biotechnology company, founded in 1997, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It currently operates as an IP holding company for assets relating to crop genetic traits.
In December 2014, Mendel sold its R&D operations and certain assets relating to the discovery and development of agricultural biological products to a subsidiary of Koch Agronomic Services, [1] [2] a business division of Koch Industries. Koch founded a new business unit, Koch Biological Solutions, based on the acquired assets and sourced additional near-to-market biological technologies through in-licenses, supply agreements and strategic investments. This business unit also operated under the name Mendel Biological Solutions. In November 2019, Koch Biological Solutions was spun out of Koch and merged with another company, Plant Response Biotech, to form Plant Response Inc. Plant Response was acquired by the fertilizer company Mosaic in the spring of 2022.
Mendel undertook research into transcription factors over a 17-year period, and patented the use of transcription factor-based technologies in manipulating crop plant traits. [3]
Since its inception, Mendel collaborated with Monsanto. The multinational corporation funded certain agricultural biotechnology research undertaken by Mendel. [4] Mendel also collaborated with BP, Bayer CropScience and others. [5] [6]
The Monsanto Company was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in the 1970s. Later, the company became a major producer of genetically engineered crops. In 2018, the company ranked 199th on the Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
BASF SE, an initialism and portmanteau of its original name Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik, is a European multinational company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Labcorp Drug Development is a contract research organization (CRO) headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, providing nonclinical, preclinical, clinical and commercialization services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Formerly called Covance, the company is part of Labcorp, which employs more than 70,000 people worldwide. Labcorp Drug Development claims to provide the world's largest central laboratory network.
Genetically modified crops are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of Agrobacterium for the delivery of sequences hosted in T-DNA binary vectors. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, environmental conditions, reduction of spoilage, resistance to chemical treatments, or improving the nutrient profile of the crop. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as for bioremediation.
Syngenta AG is a provider of agricultural science and technology, in particular seeds and pesticides with its management headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
Genetic use restriction technology (GURT), also known as terminator technology or suicide seeds, is the name given to proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified crops by activating some genes only in response to certain stimuli, especially to cause second generation seeds to be infertile. The development and application of GURTs is primarily an attempt by private sector agricultural breeders to increase the extent of protection on their innovations. The technology was originally developed under a cooperative research and development agreement between the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and Delta & Pine Land Company in the 1990s and is not yet commercially available.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. is a U.S.-based producer of seeds for agriculture. They are a major producer of genetically modified crops with insect and herbicide resistance.
Genome Valley is an Indian high-technology business district spread across 2,000-acre (8.1 km2)/(3.1 sq mi) in Hyderabad, India. It is located across the suburbs, Turakapally, Shamirpet, Medchal, Uppal, Patancheru, Jeedimetla, Gachibowli and Keesara. The Genome Valley has developed as a cluster for Biomedical research, training and manufacturing. Genome Valley is now into its Phase III, which is about 11 kms from the Phase I and II with the total area approximately 2,000-acre (8.1 km2).
CropDesign is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The company develops a portfolio of agronomic traits for the global commercial seed markets. It has developed a technology platform to discover genetic traits for the improvement of corn, rice and other plants. Current Managing Director is Juergen Logemann.
Roundup Ready is the Monsanto trademark for its patented line of genetically modified crop seeds that are resistant to its glyphosate-based herbicide, Roundup.
Holden Foundation Seeds is an American company that specializes in the research, development, and production of patented foundation seed corn for agriculture. Foundation corn is the parent seed from which hybrids are made.
Plant genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity specifically in plants. It is generally considered a field of biology and botany, but intersects frequently with many other life sciences and is strongly linked with the study of information systems. Plant genetics is similar in many ways to animal genetics but differs in a few key areas.
Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds and biotechnology products. The company is a component of the EURO STOXX 50 stock market index.
Asgrow is a seed company owned and operated by Bayer Crop Science.
The Climate Corporation is a digital agriculture company that examines weather, soil and field data to help farmers determine potential yield-limiting factors in their fields.
Ceres, Inc. was a biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, California, United States that operated from 1996 to 2016, when it was acquired by Land O'Lakes. The company was a spinoff from UCLA researchers. Its ultimate commercial products were seeds of genetically modified crops used for biofuel production. In addition to its operations in the United States, Ceres had a subsidiary in Brazil called Ceres Sementes do Brasil.
Agricen is a plant health biotechnology company headquartered in Plano, Texas, United States, that produces microbially derived biochemical products for the agriculture, turf and ornamental plant markets.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics for genetically defined diseases. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2016, Forbes included the company on its "100 Most Innovative Growth Companies" list.
Delta & Pine Land Company was initially chartered in Mississippi in 1886 as a land speculation company, but was inactive until 1919, when a British textile company acquired the name. In the 1920s and 1930s, the company operated one of the largest cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta, with headquarters in Scott, Mississippi. In the latter half of the 20th century, the company divested its farm lands, concentrated on research and development of cotton and soybean seeds, and became world-renowned for its development of Deltapine cotton varieties.
Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. (Mahyco) is an agricultural company based in India. It is one of the country's major producers of seed. As of 2015, the company was also active in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Bangladesh, and planned expansion to Africa. The company produces seeds for cotton, wheat, rice, sorghum, pearl millet, maize oilseeds and vegetables crops. Through a joint venture with Monsanto named Mahyco Monsanto Biotech, Mahyco sublicenses Bt cotton technology in India. The Indian government has maintained price controls on Bt cotton seeds since at least 2011.