Startup edits three allergy proteins out of the peanut
AgriNetica says it has used CRISPR to remove three allergy-triggering proteins from peanuts, and is selling first to schools, hospitals and airlines rather than supermarkets.
A US biotech company has used CRISPR gene editing to remove three of the proteins that trigger peanut allergy, according to its own account.
The company is AgriNetica. The peanut product is branded Nurtured Nuts.
Rather than starting on supermarket shelves, the company is targeting schools, hospitals, universities and flights.
Those are the places that banned peanuts in the first place. They are also institutional buyers, which means a small number of contracts rather than a long fight for retail distribution.
The number of proteins removed is three. How many allergy sufferers that helps, and how the product is tested, has not been made public.
No clinical results, pricing, funding total or launch date have been released.
For founders, the interesting part is not the biology but the route to market. A product built to reverse a safety ban sells best to the people who imposed it, and one catering contract puts the food in front of thousands of people at once.
It is also the hardest sale to make. Institutions that removed peanuts on liability grounds will want evidence before they put them back, and that evidence has not yet been published.