February 13, 2014

In order to address demands for new modes of action for herbicides, Evogene Ltd. has launched PoinTar, a computationally based target discovery platform for novel herbicides.

The major elements to be dealt with are key molecules, responsible for essential biological processes in weeds, which have the potential to be chemically inhibited to cause weed death.

Crop losses from weeds are estimated to reach more than US$100 billion annually and chemical herbicides, with a worldwide market currently estimated at US$20 billion, are the dominant approach for weed control. The need for new herbicide solutions arises from the substantial and growing resistance of weeds and other invasive plants to existing chemical solutions.

Evogene's herbicide discovery programme, initiated in 2012 within the company's ag-chemical operations, will addressing the need for new herbicide modes of action through the development of computationally-based platforms integrating predictive biology and chemistry.

The launch of the PoinTar platform is the first key milestone in the programme. An important feature of the new platform, in addition to the predictive discovery of potential targets, is the ability to prioritise the resulting predictions for proteins on the basis of structural information such as 'drugability', which is the ability of the predicted target to interact with a chemical molecule. PoinTar is also able to identify non-coding RNAs as potential targets, adding a substantial new class of overlooked molecules to the discovery process. The combination of these two computationally based features is anticipated to provide a unique and effective target discovery capability. 

The remaining key development milestone for the establishment of Evogene's herbicide discovery capability is the completion of a second, complementary platform for the discovery of chemical molecules which are designed to inhibit the activity of targets discovered using the PoinTar platform. These chemical molecules will then serve as the active ingredients for the final herbicide product.

Plant genomics company, Evogene, utilises a proprietary integrated technology infrastructure to enhance seed traits underlying crop productivity. It offers a complete solution for crop productivity improvement through biotechnology and advanced breeding using a unique technology infrastructure which is based on a deep scientific understanding of plant genomics and proprietary computational capabilities.