NMBio MemberInnate Immunity

About a decade ago, the California wine industry came calling to New Mexico – seeking solutions to some pesty pathogens that for decades had a devastating impact on the grape vines in the U.S. Industry leaders had been following the research of Dr. Goutam Gupta, who was developing novel innate approaches to therapy. They worked with Dr. Gupta to develop the chimera strategy for protection against Pierce’s Disease (PD) in grapes. Xylella fastidiosa, a gram-negative bacterium, is the causative agent and is transmitted to grape by vectors, called glassy wing sharpshooters. PD is a major threat to the wine industries in California and in Brazil. In 2016, a new HD3 startup, called Innate Immunity was born that acknowledges the rapid emergence of pathogenic resistance against drugs, antibiotics, and vaccines warrants radically novel approaches to therapy. While vector control by insecticides can temporarily halt the disease occurrence but cannot totally eliminate the disease. The therapy is able to show complete suppression of PD in greenhouse and field studies by designing Thompson Seedless grape that expresses a chimera targeted against Xf.