User:Dcbennett2/sandbox/calyxt

Calyxt is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on developing healthier food products using gene editing technologies to the benefit of both consumers and farmers. The company aims to create healthier crop products such as high-oleic/low trans fat soybean oil, cold-storable potatoes, reduced-gluten wheat and low saturated fat canola oil for the food and agriculture industries.

History
Founded in 2010, Calyxt (previously Cellectis plant sciences) is a subsidiary of biotech company Cellectis. Calyxt is based in New Brighton, Minnesota. In 2011, Calyxt acquired an exclusive license to TAL Effector nuclease patents from the University of Minnesota, and the company uses this technology to develop its products.

Activities & products
Calyxt’s activities are focused in three main areas:
 * Developing a pipeline of 3 key crops: potato, wheat, and soybean
 * Developing a portfolio of traits in various crops such as soybean, rice, corn and canola
 * Co-developing products with purchasers.

In November, 2015, Calyxt completed the first field trials of its cold storable potato product, aimed at reducing the creation of acrylamide during frying. Acrylamide is considered as ‘probable human carcinogen’ by the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. At the same time, the company completed second year of field trials of its high oleic soybean product, a non-GM variety of soybean that has high oleic acid and low linoleic acid content, eliminating the need for hydrogenation – a process that creates trans-fats, which have been linked to numerous human health issues such as cardiovascular problems.

Technologies
Scientists at Calyxt engineer and utilize customized nucleases such as TALEN® to create valuable traits through precise modification of plant genomes. Calyxt applies customized techniques at a state of the art facility to develop products using diverse technologies that could apply to a broad range of horticultural and agronomic plant species. The platform utilizes technical expertise in many facets of plant tissue culture and horticultural science. Platform scientists are well versed in various technologies including protoplast isolation/regeneration, biolistic and T-DNA-mediated techniques.