TechAccel Collaborates with UC Davis to Develop New Heat-Tolerant Wheat Varieties

TechAccel, a Kansas City-based venture development company, announced it is partnering with The Siegel Lab at the Genome Center of the University of California - Davis to utilize protein structure prediction for the development and testing of enzyme variants that could lead to greater heat-tolerance in wheat.

Employing the Siegel Lab’s advanced engineering and design capabilities, the project aims to determine the efficacy of the enzyme in creating hartier wheat varieties. If successful, the team will then use gene editing technology to produce heat tolerant non-GMO wheat with higher yields than existing varieties.

The combination of specific capabilities of both The Siegel Lab and TechAccel in the area of synthetic biology have the ability to create critical grain varieties that address today’s changing climate. Global warming has already been shown to have a negative impact on wheat output, and through this endeavor the partners aim to successfully produce wheat that can thrive at 10 degrees Celsius above current ideal temperatures.

Learn more about TechAccel in this exclusive interview with CEO and Co-Founder Michael Helmstetter, which was published in our sister publication, GAI News.

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