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An integrated platform combining AI, systems biology, multiplex genome editing and biological validation to develop resilient, high-performing crops.
Many of agriculture's most important traits - including yield stability, drought resilience, heat resilience, and input efficiency - are governed by complex interactions across multiple genes.
While traditional breeding remains the foundation of crop improvement, understanding and improving these traits increasingly requires approaches that can address biological complexity at the systems level.
Trait Foundry™ was built to help seed and breeding organisations discover, engineer, and validate complex traits with greater confidence through an integrated Design → Build → Test workflow.
Trait Foundry™ connects prediction,
engineering, validation and learning
within a continuous development cycle.
Design
Use systems biology and AI to identify the gene networks controlling complex traits and prioritise high-value genetic modifications.
Build
Create targeted genetic diversity through multiplex genome editing and precision breeding to explore complex trait architectures at scale.
Test
Validate trait performance through phenotyping and biological measurement, generating data that continuously improves future predictions.
Traditional breeding relies on generating and selecting genetic diversity over successive cycles.
Trait Foundry™ focuses exploration within a defined biological search space, helping prioritise the genetic combinations most likely to influence complex trait performance. This enables more targeted experimentation, faster learning, and more informed development decisions.
By feeding insights back into the platform, Trait Foundry™ continuously improves its understanding of complex traits, helping refine future predictions and guide subsequent development cycles.
Our Capabilities
Trait Foundry™ integrates five core capabilities within a single development workflow:
Systems biology
Understand how interacting gene networks influence complex traits.
Artificial intelligence
Identify patterns, relationships, and opportunities across large biological datasets.
Multiplex genome editing
Generate targeted genetic diversity by introducing multiple genetic changes simultaneously.
Precision breeding
Combine and fix beneficial genetic modifications to create diverse populations optimised for complex trait discovery and development.
Automated phenotyping
& validation
Measure biological performance and generate the data needed to continuously improve future design cycles.
Together, these capabilities enable the systematic exploration of complex genetic architectures, accelerating the discovery, engineering, and validation of improved crop traits.
Trait Foundry™ can be applied across crops and complex agronomic traits, including:
The platform is designed to support the development of traits that improve crop performance and help address some of agriculture's most pressing challenges.
Trait Foundry™ is designed not only to generate hypotheses but to validate them through real-world experimentation.
The platform has demonstrated its ability to move from biological discovery to field validation, providing real-world evidence of its potential to engineer complex crop traits.
Evidence in practice:
End-to-end proof-of-concept demonstrated in corn
Field validation completed
Ongoing patent activity
Gates Foundation-supported programmes
Active research and commercial collaborations
Rainbow Crops partners with seed and breeding organisations to accelerate the discovery, engineering and validation of complex crop traits.