Featured in AgFunder: Pairwise sees ‘dramatic uptick’ in CRISPR licensing as gene editing moves beyond row crops

DURHAM, N.C. — Pairwise today introduced Fontana™, a new blackberry developed for commercial fresh-market production. With a compact plant architecture, earlier and more condensed fruiting window, and high-quality fruit, the Fontana blackberry is designed to help growers increase productivity while simplifying production and harvest.

"We started with a great berry and improved the plant around it," said Ryan Bartlett, Chief Technology Officer at Pairwise. "Fontana helps growers produce significantly more fruit per acre while simplifying some of the most labor-intensive parts of blackberry production, making it a true win-win-win — for growers, for retailers, and for consumers, who enjoy high-quality, delicious fruit that's more seasonally available.”

Fontana is built on a proven Plant Sciences Genetics (PSG) variety known for its exceptional flavor and fruit quality. Pairwise developed the Fontana blackberry with a compact architecture that reaches approximately 3.5 to 5 feet, about half the height of a conventional blackberry plant.

The smaller architecture allows Fontana blackberries to be planted at higher densities while requiring no pruning and minimal trellis labor. Combined with an earlier and more concentrated harvest window, these characteristics can increase production per acre and make plants easier to manage, harvest and grow in more locations with an early production window.

Fontana plants offer several potential advantages for commercial growers:

• Earlier, higher yield: Higher-density planting and an earlier, more condensed harvest window can increase yield per acre.
• A consistent, great berry: One blackberry grown across regions and seasons, so every clamshell delivers the same delicious eating experience.‍
• Easier management: Fontana’s compact architecture makes fruit easier to access at harvest.

By the numbers

First in a pipeline of improved blackberry varieties

Fontana is the first in a pipeline of blackberry varieties under development, which include thornless and seedless blackberries. Together, the pipeline is intended to improve the economics and sustainability of blackberry production while delivering high-quality fruit with characteristics consumers value.

About Pairwise

Pairwise is committed to building a healthier world through better crop varieties and plant innovation. Powered by its proprietary Fulcrum® Platform, Pairwise accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As a trusted partner to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, Pairwise helps breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

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Read through for an excerpt from our recently published article in WIRED:

If you wanted to create better blackberries, you could try to breed a variety without the seeds that get stuck in your teeth. Or one without the thorns that make the berries hard to pick. Or you could aim for more environmentally efficient plants that produce more berries per acre with less water and fewer chemicals.

With decades of work and a fair amount of luck, you might achieve one of those goals.

But a North Carolina startup called Pairwise is using the gene-editing technology called Crispr to try to achieve all those goals at once, crafting seedless, thornless, higher-yielding blackberry plants—and in a matter of years rather than decades.

That’s the promise of modern genomics: introducing speed, precision, and the ability to solve multiple problems at once to the glacially slow, haphazard, one-tweak-at-a-time world of crop breeding.

Click here for full article.

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ST. LOUIS, MO. and DURHAM, NC, June 23, 2026 — Pairwise, a global innovator in agriculture, today announced a licensing agreement with Agragene, a sustainable agricultural technology company developing biological crop pest protection, granting access to Pairwise's Fulcrum® CRISPR platform.

Agragene will integrate Fulcrum® tools into the development of its Precision-Guided Sterile Insect Technology (pgSIT), which produces sterile male insects for proactive control of pest populations, increasing yields for growers. Agragene's first product (KNOCKOUT™ SWD) targets spotted wing drosophila (SWD), an invasive fly responsible for more than $1billion annually in losses to U.S. and Canadian berry, cherry, and other soft fruit crops. Because the technology is highly species-specific, it suppresses only the target pest, leaving crops, beneficial insects such as bees and ladybugs, and the surrounding environment unaffected.  

“Growers are running out of options as pests develop resistance to conventional insecticides, and they are looking for tools that are safe, targeted, and sustainable,” said Bryan Witherbee, President and CEO of Agragene. “Our mission is to deliver cleaner pest control that supports healthier crops and a healthier planet. Access to Fulcrum® strengthens the editing technology behind our pgSIT platform and helps us move faster from field trials towards practical tools growers can use.”

“Pairwise works across all of agriculture, which means partnering with people closest to the problems,” said Dr. Tom Adams, CEO of Pairwise. “Agragene is the first to apply Fulcrum® in insect systems, and it's exactly the kind of creative use we hoped good tools would find."

The Pairwise Fulcrum® platform includes proprietary CRISPR editing tools, enzymes, and trait libraries that enable precise genetic changes. Pairwise developed and proved the platform in its own breeding programs and makes it available to partners and licensees worldwide for research and commercial purposes.

About Agragene

Agragene is a sustainable agricultural technology company based in St. Louis, Missouri, developing biological crop pest protection products. Using Precision-Guided Sterile Insect Technology (pgSIT), a CRISPR-based platform, Agragene provides sterile male insects to reduce and control pest populations while reducing reliance on traditional insecticides. Founded in 2017, the company is pursuing commercial product launch in the U.S. and a licensing strategy worldwide. For more information, visit www.agragene.com

About Pairwise

Pairwise is agriculture's gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by early pioneers of CRISPR, Pairwise's Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As a trusted partner to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, Pairwise helps breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

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