Soilcea has developed citrus trees that are resistant to Huanglongbing (citrus greening disease) that is decimating the Florida citrus industry, having killed over 50 million trees, having cost the state over $10 billion in lost revenue, and having reduced citrus production from 300 million citrus boxes annually to 15 million boxes. Soilcea has exclusive commercial licenses to patents to HLB and canker target susceptibility genes and optimized CRISPR transformation methods for citrus developed by Dr. Nian Wang’s lab at the University of Florida.
Soilcea is using CRISPR breeding to make small edits that make a tree susceptible to citrus greening and canker. Nature constantly makes changes to counter diseases and slowly adopts the beneficial change through natural selection. At Soilcea, we are advancing a natural process in time to save the Florida citrus industry. Soilcea's new varieties are showing significantly reduced disease levels and strong growth. The picture below shows a new Soilcea tree on the right compared to a normal control tree on the left that were planted at the same time.
Jacob Zobrist, PhD
Scientist
Brendan Mormile, PhD
Scientist
Lindsey Logan
Lab Technician
Ron English
Citrus Grower
Keval Patel
Lab Technician
Cecilia Calabi Villarroel
Lab Technician
Ava Turchiarolo
Lab Technician
Alydia White
Lab Technician
Elizabeth Newmiller
Lab Technician
Andrew Dill
Greenhouse Grower
Advisory Board
Ron Edwards
President and CEO of Evans Properties
Dr. Harold Browning
President of Premier Citrus Apz
Dave Crumbly
Vice President, Agricltural Services at Florida's Natural Growers
Fran Becker
Senior Vice President of Peace River Citrus Products
Clay Pederson
Managing Director of Agromillora Florida
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