Technology

Our Platform

We give crops the tools to defeat disease themselves

Resurrect Bio combines AI-assisted prediction with high-throughput in-planta screening to discover and restore disease-resistance traits in crops.

Partner with Us

The Three Pillars

FloraFold® AI Platform

FloraFold® predicts protein–protein interactions between crop immune receptors and pathogen effectors, helping prioritise the most promising candidates for testing. It is used to focus wet-lab screening and accelerate discovery.

Rapid In-Planta Screening

High-priority candidates are tested at scale in living plant systems to identify functionally relevant immune interactions. This allows Resurrect Bio to validate predicted targets before they move further through the discovery process.

Resurrection

Once a defeated resistance mechanism is identified, Resurrect Bio designs precise changes to restore or strengthen immune function. These changes form the basis of actionable disease-resistance traits that seed companies can take forward in their own pipelines.

From target to trait

Define the disease challenge

We start with the crop and disease target, using available genomic data to identify relevant resistance genes and pathogen effectors.

Validate function

Candidates are tested in-planta to confirm which interactions are biologically relevant and capable of restoring or strengthening resistance.

Prioritise candidates

Computational analysis and AI-assisted prediction narrow the search to the most promising interactions for testing.

Deliver the trait design

Validated resistance traits are provided to seed-company partners for implementation through their own breeding or gene-editing pipelines.

The premise

An illustration of a banana peeled open with a purple virus symbol and a lock in front of it, symbolizing online security or data protection amid virus concerns.

Pathogens suppress crop immunity

Pathogens evolve effector proteins that interfere with a crop’s immune receptors, allowing disease to take hold.

Illustration of a corn with a keyhole symbol on it, surrounded by sparkling stars, and a purple virus particle with a key attached to it.

We break the interaction

Resurrect Bio identifies these interactions and designs precise changes that restore or strengthen immune function.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Resurrect Bio's traits are derived from the crop's own immune system, we restore natural resistance that already existed, rather than introducing foreign DNA. Our traits require as few as one DNA change, placing them in a more favourable regulatory category in many jurisdictions, including the UK's Precision Breeding framework.

  • We partner with plant breeders and seed companies to discover disease resistance traits for their specific crop and pathogen targets. Breeders bring their challenges; we apply our FloraFold® AI and screening platform to find validated resistance traits.

    Contact us at info@resurrect.bio to start a conversation.

  • Resurrect Bio's platform is designed to work with almost any crop species and most pathogens. Our novel approach to crop immunity is not limited to a single species or pathogen class. We work with breeders and seed companies on a partnership basis to target the crop disease combinations most relevant to their portfolios.

  • Resurrect Bio's combined in-silico (FloraFold® AI) and in-planta screening workflow identifies resistance trait candidates up to 5x faster than conventional methods. Our rapid in-planta platform validates candidates at speed, reducing the time from discovery to field-ready trait significantly.

  • R-genes (resistance genes) are part of a crop's natural immune system. Over time, pathogens evolve to suppress these immune responses — effectively disabling the crop's defences. Our Resurrection technology identifies the precise molecular change that caused the resistance to break down and restores it, re-enabling the crop's immune system to lock the pathogen out. The resulting traits can involve as few as one DNA change.

  • Unlike chemical fungicides and pesticides, Resurrect Bio's genetic resistance traits offer several advantages: they are more targeted with no chemical leakage into soil or water, they require no fossil fuel inputs, they contain no foreign DNA, they increase genetic diversity in breeding programmes, and they provide durable resistance that does not wash off or degrade. Chemical controls also face growing regulatory pressure and resistance evolution in pathogens, whereas genetic resistance can be continuously renewed through our discovery platform.

  • Resurrect Bio is based at Scale Space, White City, London, UK. The company was co-founded by Dr Cian Duggan (CEO), Professor Tolga Bozkurt (Imperial College London), and Professor Sophien Kamoun (The Sainsbury Laboratory)

Read more

Mauricio P. Contreras et al., Resurrection of plant disease resistance proteins via helper NLR bioengineering. Sci. Adv. 9, eadg3861(2023). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adg3861

Derevnina L, Contreras MP, Adachi H, Upson J, Vergara Cruces A, et al. (2021) Plant pathogens convergently evolved to counteract redundant nodes of an NLR immune receptor network. PLOS Biology 19(8): e3001136. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001136