Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchPHYLLOTECH INC
UEI: QC6KNEVDQ7V7
Number of Employees: 2
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2010
7
Phase I Awards
4
Phase II Awards
57.14%
Conversion Rate
$1,144,913
Phase I Dollars
$2,749,910
Phase II Dollars
$3,894,823
Total Awarded
Awards
Reducing the prohibitive costs of protein production for therapeutic development
Amount: $1,000,000 Topic: 400
PhylloTech, Inc. is redefining the production of proteins and antibodies by eliminating the need for expensive manufacturing, purification, and downstream processing steps. The company has developed a contrarian method to produce proteins and antibodies in plants by engineering tobacco leaf structures, called glandular secreting trichomes, to manufacture, purify, and deliver target proteins directly to leaf surfaces of living plants for easy and economical harvests. The proteins can then be packaged and sold directly to the end user or sent to fill/finish operations. The value proposition is that high amounts of purified proteins can be generated at low cost in a renewable, environmentally friendly manner. We call this expression system OnLeafEX, and with this system, PhylloTech can eliminate the prohibitive costs that are forestalling the future generation of protein-based therapeutics. We are pursuing the cytokine research use only market segment as an immediate opportunity because of their restrictively high costs, high demand, and overseas sourcing. The specific aims of the project are: Specific Aim 1 – Genetic sequences encoding twenty-five cytokines will be designed and codon-optimized for N. tabacum, and placed into proprietary plant vectors. Specific Aim 2 - Stable plant transformants will be generated with standard protocols of Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation. Specific Aim 3 - Propagated plants will then be transferred to sterile soil and grown in our indoor plant growth facility, and plant-made cytokines will be harvested. Specific Aim 4 – Harvested plant-made cytokines will be internally validated and analyzed. Specific Aim 5 – Plant-made cytokines will be externally validated for activity and further developed for commercialization. The aim of this work is to use a novel manufacturing technology discovered in plants to dramatically increase patient’s accessibility to therapeutics by lowering their costs, and with OnLeafEX, the company is in an ideal position to maximize this business opportunity. Research and development costs associated with cytokines and other research tools could be drastically reduced, potentially allowing for faster adoption of therapeutics. The technology will also lower the COGS for partner companies, providing larger margins and ultimately more financial stability to organizations that can pass the savings onto patients, resulting in lower retail prices for therapeutics.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2022
HHS
NIH
SBIR Phase I: Large Scale Production of Antiviral Interferons for the Treatment of COVID-19
Amount: $256,000 Topic: BT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to advance the development of production for COVID-19 treatments. The COVID-19 pandemic is placing great strain on the supply chain for protein and antibody therapeutics and research products. Interferons represent a specific class of protein released in response to viral infections; they are currently being tested as important therapies to combat COVID-19 infections and to regulate the immune system. This project will develop a new system to produce and purify interferons using a new platform based on a plant system. No plant system has been utilized commercially to produce human interferons, due to product loss during purification from plant tissue. This system overcomes this challenge by secreting the proteins to leaf surfaces where they will easily be recovered. The rapid scalability of this plant-based system can allow fast production of COVID-19 therapeutics at high levels and lower cost than current protein expression systems. The proposed Phase I project will develop a photosynthetic platform for the production of COVID-19 therapeutics, as current production strategies are expensive to scale and limited in production capacity. Plants will be generated that produce and secrete interferons for the purposes of large-scale production. Further research efforts will be performed to determine if newly-identified trichome-specific promoters, intron-mediated expression elements, and unique protein secretion signals that are cleaved during protein maturation can optimize and enhance the system for interferon production. Plant-made interferons will be tested for activity and compared against interferons generated in other biomanufacturing systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2020
NSF
Reducing the prohibitive costs of protein production for therapeutic development
Amount: $150,000 Topic: 400
PhylloTech, Inc. is redefining the production of proteins and antibodies by eliminating the need for expensive manufacturing, purification, and downstream processing steps. The company has developed a contrarian method to produce proteins and antibodies in plants by engineering tobacco leaf structures, called glandular secreting trichomes, to manufacture, purify, and deliver target proteins directly to leaf surfaces of living plants for easy and economical harvests. The proteins can then be packaged and sold directly to the end user or sent to fill/finish operations. The value proposition is that high amounts of purified proteins can be generated at low cost in a renewable, environmentally friendly manner. We call this expression system OnLeafEX, and with this system, PhylloTech can eliminate the prohibitive costs that are forestalling the future generation of protein-based therapeutics. We are pursuing the cytokine research use only market segment as an immediate opportunity because of their restrictively high costs, high demand, and overseas sourcing. The specific aims of the project are: Specific Aim 1 – Genetic sequences encoding five cytokines will be designed and codon- optimized for N. tabacum, and placed into proprietary plant vectors. Specific Aim 2 - Stable plant transformants will be generated with standard protocols of Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation and verified. Specific Aim 3 - Propagated plants will then be transferred to sterile soil and grown in our indoor plant growth facility, and cytokines will be harvested. Specific Aim 4 – Harvested plant-made cytokines will be both internally and externally validated for activity. The aim of this work is to use a novel manufacturing technology discovered in plants to dramatically increase patient’s accessibility to therapeutics by lowering their costs, and with OnLeafEX, the company is in an ideal position to maximize this business opportunity. Research and development costs associated with cytokines and other research tools could be drastically reduced, potentially allowing for faster adoption of therapeutics. The technology will also lower the COGS for partner companies, providing larger margins and ultimately more financial stability to organizations that can pass the savings onto patients, resulting in lower retail prices for therapeutics.Production costs hinder the generation of protein and antibody therapeutic stockpiles for potential emerging epidemics and for proteins and antibodies used as research and development tools and reagents. New methods of producing these protein and antibodies for a variety of uses must be developed to counter the rising costs and the loss of therapeutic development opportunity. PhylloTech has developed a contrarian method to produce proteins and antibodies in plants by engineering tobacco leaf structures, called glandular secreting trichomes, to manufacture, purify, and deliver target proteins directly to leaf surfaces of living plants for easy and economical harvests.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2020
HHS
NIH
SBIR Phase II: Plant Bioproduction of Therapeutics and Antibodies for the Treatment of Ebola and Other Diseases
Amount: $750,000 Topic: BT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be the development of genetically engineered tobacco plants that produce antibodies for the treatment of individuals infected with the Ebola virus. In the recent Ebola outbreak, a new antibody-based drug was shown to be effective in treating infected patients that was based on a transient tobacco-produced Ebola antibody cocktail called ZMapp (Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc, San Diego, CA). Unfortunately, Mapp Biopharmaceutical's supply of antibody was quickly depleted, as the manufacturing method was not able to keep up with demand. The technological innovation in this proposal is the targeted production of antibodies within the gland cells of the tobacco leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes. The research objectives will be to demonstrate the secretion of antibodies to the Ebola virus from tobacco trichome glands. The goal is to generate a line of N. tabacum plants that is optimized for antibody production in plant trichomes to provide a biomanufacturing platform for the large-scale production of antibodies that may be used in the treatment of Ebola infection, and in the future, other diseases. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to use a recently developed plant-based biomanufacturing system to scale-up the production of antibodies to the Ebola virus for use as a therapeutic treatment. Mapp Biopharmaceutical has produced a drug based on antibodies to the Ebola virus produced in a tobacco plant transient gene expression system. Using this system, they have identified a glycosylated antibody variant (glycoform) with enhanced antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity. Using glycosyl-transferase knockout lines of N. benthiamiana and transient expression strategies, the company utilizes plants to produce glycosylated antibodies that produce optimal recruitment of natural immune effector cells (Olinger et al., 2012). Other expression hosts (Chinese hamster ovary cells, yeast) yield product with reduced potency, and are not suitable alternatives. To recover active antibody with their current plant expression technology, Mapp Biopharmaceutical must destructively harvest plants, and isolate antibody from plant tissue homogenates. Unfortunately, this method has not been able to produce enough antibodies to satisfy the demand. The proposed method will allow for the production of antibodies in tobacco plants in large scale. In addition, the proposed system will use antibody harvesting strategies that do not require destructive homogenization as the antibodies will be secreted onto the surface of the leaf, and recovered by washing. The goals of this project are to increase the functionality of plant-produced antibodies, scale-up production, and reduce the costs of production further through system optimization.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2016
NSF
SBIR RAPID: Plant Bioproduction of Antibodies for the Treatment of Ebola Infection
Amount: $200,000 Topic: BT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will be the development of genetically engineered tobacco plants that produce antibodies for the treatment of individuals infected with the Ebola virus. In the current Ebola outbreak, a new drug was tested in infected patients that is based on a tobacco-produced Ebola antibody cocktail called ZMapp (Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc, San Diego, CA). Unfortunately, the company's supply of antibody was quickly depleted, and the manufacturing method was not able to keep up with demand. The technological innovation in this proposal is the targeted production of antibodies within the gland cells of the tobacco leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes. The research objectives will be to demonstrate the secretion of antibodies to the Ebola virus from trichome glands. The goal is to generate a line of N. tabacum plants that is optimized for antibody production in plant trichomes to provide an urgently needed biomanufacturing platform for the large-scale production of antibodies that may be used in the treatment of Ebola infection. This SBIR RAPID project proposes to use a recently developed plant-based biomanufacturing system to scale-up the production of antibodies to the Ebola virus for use as a therapeutic. Mapp Biopharmaceutical has produced a drug based on antibodies to the Ebola virus produced in a tobacco plant transient gene expression system. Using this system, they have identified a glycosylated antibody variant (glycoform) with enhanced antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity. Using glycosyl-transferase knockout lines of N. benthiamiana and transient expression strategies, the company utilizes plants to produce glycosylated antibodies that produce optimal recruitment of natural immune effector cells. Other expression hosts (Chinese hamster ovary cells, yeast) yield product with reduced potency, and are not considered suitable alternatives. To recover active antibody with their current plant expression technology, Mapp Biopharmaceutical must destructively harvest plants, and isolate antibody from plant tissue homogenates. Unfortunately, this method has not been able to produce enough antibodies to satisfy the demand. The proposed method will allow for the production of antibodies in tobacco plants in large scale. In addition, the proposed system will use antibody harvesting strategies that do not require destructive homogenization as the antibodies will be secreted onto the surface of the leaf, and recovered by washing. The goals of this project are to demonstrate secretion of Ebola antibodies, and to generate a line of N. tobacum for optimized antibody glycosylation.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2015
NSF
Enzymatic degradation of quorum-sensing signals to decrease bacterial phytopathogenicity
Amount: $500,000 Topic: 8.2
Quorum sensing (QS) allows bacterial populations to coordinate gene expression in a cell density dependent manner and plays a significant role in the onset of pathogenesis and biofilm development. In many Gram-negative bacteria, QS is mediated by signaling molecules called N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs). We recently identified an AHL acylase from P. syringae which can enzymatically degrade and inactivate the AHLs used by phytopathogens. Similarly, during the Phase I project, we discovered a new AHL acylase from a closely-related pseudomonad. Our technological innovation is the use of these AHL acylases to degrade the AHL signals of bacterial phytopathogens and reduce plant disease. Our research objectives for the Phase II project will be to continue to advance our technologies by evaluating their efficacy in field trials. We will increase the production scale of heterologous protein and then evaluate formulations of exogenous acylase. We will also further develop our biocontrol strains and plants that constitutively produce AHL acylases. QS is a nonessential cellular process and so, unlike existing antibiotics that target indispensible functions, the targeted degradation of QS signals will exert significantly reduced selective pressure on plant pathogens and slow resistance development. The enzymatic degradation of QS signals will be environmentally friendly and will be advantageous over existing disease management strategies.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2015
USDA
The Enzymatic Degradation of Quorum-Sensing Signals to Decrease Bacterial Phytopathogenicity
Amount: $100,000 Topic: 8.2
Quorum-sensing (QS) allows bacterial populations to coordinate gene expression in a cell-density dependent manner and plays a significant role in plant pathogenesis. In gram-negative bacteria, QS is mediated by signaling molecules called acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs). Our technological innovation is the use of an AHL-degrading enzyme to inactivate the AHL signals of bacterial phytopathogens and reduce their abilities to cause plant disease. Our first objective is to produce the enzyme in both bacterial and plant systems and test its efficacy against signal molecules. Our second objective is to test the ability of the enzyme to reduce disease caused by numerous phytopathogens, either through exogenous application of the heterologous protein or through the use of a producing bacterial strain as a biocontrol agent. Our goals are to demonstrate that the enzymatic degradation of AHLs can be utilized for the control of diseases and to understand the importance of quorum-sensing signal degradation in bacterial infection.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2014
USDA
SBIR Phase II: Targeted Production of Spider Silk Fibroins in Plant Trichomes
Amount: $499,910 Topic: BC
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes to develop a platform for the production of spider silk fibroins in plant trichomes. Synthetic spider silk has great potential as an environmentally-friendly biomaterial because it is very flexible yet has a tensile strength greater than steel. A great need exists for a scalable strategy for spider silk fibroin production in a renewable heterologous system that will allow efficient harvest and recovery. The platform is a natural mechanism for protein production and purification in the plant Nicotiana tabacum. The technological innovation is the targeted expression of spider silk fibroins within the gland cells of leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes. The research objectives will be to optimize the production of spider silk fibroins and generate fibers from harvested proteins. The goal is to drive the expression of different spider silk fibroins in trichomes using patented promoters, and refine methods of fibroin recovery, so that fibers with differing physical properties can be generated and tested. This work will demonstrate further that spider silk fibroins can be produced by plant trichomes in a cost-effective manner, and will allow the large-scale, photosynthetic production of next-generation biomaterials. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? The broader impact/commercial potential of this project, if successful, will be to demonstrate that a variety of synthetic spider silk fibroins can be produced in a plant-based system, and to better understanding the biosynthetic hardware of the specialized plant structures called glandular secreting trichomes. This work will allow the development of novel ways of achieving industrial biomaterial production without the use of toxic chemicals, and will thus have great societal impact by decreasing the necessity of utilizing large amounts of hazardous compounds in industrial processes. The commercial impact of this project will implement a platform for the photosynthetic production of environmentally-friendly biomaterials.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2012
NSF
Phytoextraction of Cadmium from Plant Trichomes Expressing a Stabilized Antibody
Amount: $138,913 Topic: NIEHS
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of utilizing a stabilized, cadmium-binding antibody to sequester cadmium in plant trichomes. Heavy metals such as cadmium are ubiquitous contaminants in soil surrounding industrial sites and have great deleterious impacts on human health. A great need exists for a strategy of heavy metal removal and recovery from soil that does not rely on expensive and toxic restoration techniques.The opportunity that PhylloTech will pursue is the modification of a natural process of heavy metal phytoextraction in the genetically-tractable, high-biomass plant Nicotiana tabacum. Our specific technological innovation is the targeted expression of a thermostabile cadmium-binding antibody within the gland cells of leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes, to achieve high levels of cadmium sequestration outside of the main plant body so that plant growth is undeterred. The research objectives will be to generate a stabilized antibody that binds cadmium, drive its expression in trichomes using patented promoters, and investigate if plants are enhanced in their abilities to extract cadmium from growth media. This work will demonstrate that trichomes of N. tabacum could be utilized to enhance cadmium extraction from soil, and will develop a foundation for the large-scale, selective phytoremediation of contaminants from diverse environments. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Cadmium is an industrial contaminant that has great deleterious impacts on human health, and we propose to generate plants that have an enhanced ability to remove cadmium from contaminated soils. This project is therefore relevant to the Hazardous Substances and Remediation Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), specifically by our development of phytoremediation technologies through the use of genetic engineering approaches.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2012
HHS
NIH
SBIR Phase I: Targeted Production of Spider Silk Fibroins in Plant Trichomes
Amount: $150,000 Topic: BC
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of producing spider silk fibroins in plant trichomes. Synthetic spider silk has great potential as an environmentally-friendly biomaterial because it is very flexible yet has a tensile strength greater than steel. A great need exists for a novel strategy of spider silk fibroin production in a renewable heterologous system that will allow efficient harvest and recovery. The opportunity that is being pursued is the utilization of a natural mechanism for protein production and purification in a genetically-tractable model plant. Our specific technological innovation is the targeted expression of spider silk proteins within the gland cells of leaf surface structures called glandular secreting trichomes, to achieve high levels of heterologous protein production outside of the main plant body. The research objectives will be to drive the expression of spider silk fibroin in trichomes and then investigate novel methods of fibroin recovery. This work will demonstrate that spider silk fibroins can be produced by plants in a cost-effective manner, and will develop a foundation for the large-scale, photosynthetic production of next-generation biomaterials. The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project will consist of fundamental studies to determine the feasibility of producing a revolutionary industrial biomaterial in a renewable, plant-based system. The results of these studies will not only demonstrate that biomaterials can be produced and purified from plants, but they will also have great implications for understanding about the biosynthetic hardware of specialized plant structures called glandular secreting trichomes. This work should lead to the development of novel ways of achieving industrial biomaterial production without the use of toxic chemicals, and could thus have great societal impact by decreasing the necessity of utilizing large amounts of hazardous compounds in industrial processes. The goal of this project is to develop the foundation for the photosynthetic production of environmentally-friendly biomaterials.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2011
NSF