The EU’s new regulation on new genomic techniques allows NGT-crops onto the market from July 2028.
Genome-edited crops are moving from research into commercial breeding, and the question for every programme has changed: not whether genome editing provides knowledge, but where it creates value in the varieties you already sell.
Getting a useful edit which unlocks new crop value into your own elite lines - that is where most programmes stall.
BioMaas gives breeders, trait companies and plant innovators access to the capabilities Hudson River has spent more than a decade developing.
This includes our trait expertise, genome-editing technology, crop-specific regeneration protocols, infrastructure, software and technical execution.
Customers can use those capabilities without building the equivalent specialist function internally.
The EU’s new regulation on new genomic techniques allows NGT-crops onto the market from July 2028.
Genome-edited crops are moving from research into commercial breeding, and the question for every programme has changed: not whether genome editing provides knowledge, but where it creates value in the varieties you already sell.
Getting a useful edit which unlocks new crop value into your own elite lines - that is where most programmes stall.
Not every programme starts with a defined target. A breeder has a variety and breeding objective. A trait company has a target and needs it in a commercial variety. A plant product company has a commercial problem and does not yet know whether genome editing is the answer.
Hudson River brings the trait expertise alongside execution capability to help determine what should be done and how. Bring the ambition. We’ll help build the route.
Access to a method is not enough. You need to know what is realistic, what the programme will require, where the risks sit, and whether the team delivering it will see it through.
BioMaas combines technical capability with the working qualities customers already associate with Hudson River: transparency, realistic promises, scientific guidance and reliable execution.
To obtain individual plant cells without cell walls, we use for example sterile leaf material or callus cultures generated from an explant source. The leaf material or callus is incubated with cell wall degrading enzymes until the protoplasts are released. Next, protoplasts are separated from the cell wall debris, viability and yield are assessed and protoplasts are stored in a buffer for further use.
We transfect the CRISPR machinery, responsible for the genome editing, directly into the protoplasts using a transgene-free, chemical procedure. Once inside the cell, a nuclear localisation signal attached to the CRISPR enzyme mediates active transport into the cell’s nucleus, where the genomic DNA is located. Guided by the sequence of the RNA guide, the CRISPR machinery targets a specific location of the genome where it makes a double-strand break. The plant cell itself repairs this break in its genome, yet often involving small errors. These errors may cause a gene to be ‘knocked-out’. Gene knock-outs can convert many more traits than intuition may lead you to believe.
After transfection, the protoplasts are embedded in a proprietary hydrogel. This hydrogel allows proper gas and molecule exchange, while culturing the cells in an individual manner. The protoplasts rebuild their cell wall and start to divide. Once the proliferated material is visible by the naked eye, it is called a proto-callus and isolated from the hydrogel. After isolation, proto-calli are cultured on plates with solid media and exposed to light, to allow shoots to form. Next, shoots are cut and transferred to root-inducing media. It is most often at this stage that genetic testing is done to select lines edited according to the editing objective. After rooting we speak of an in vitro plant that gets ‘deflasked’, meaning it is transferred to non-sterile soil and leaves the lab for the greenhouse where propagation and/or seed collection, and further trait analysis start.
To go beyond the use of genome editing as a research tool available for a selection of plants, we had to build a technology that is crop and variety as well as enzyme agnostic, bringing efficiency, scale and derisking, while reducing time to market. That’s why our platform utilizes a transgene-free method of genome editing, leveraging ‘protoplasting’: the isolation of individual plant cells.
To go beyond the use of genome editing as a research tool available for a selection of plants, we had to build a technology that is crop and variety as well as enzyme agnostic, bringing efficiency, scale and derisking, while reducing time to market. That’s why our platform utilizes a transgene-free method of genome editing, leveraging ‘protoplasting’: the isolation of individual plant cells.
To obtain individual plant cells without cell walls, we use for example sterile leaf material or callus cultures generated from an explant source. The leaf material or callus is incubated with cell wall degrading enzymes until the protoplasts are released. Next, protoplasts are separated from the cell wall debris, viability and yield are assessed and protoplasts are stored in a buffer for further use.
We transfect the CRISPR machinery, responsible for the genome editing, directly into the protoplasts using a transgene-free, chemical procedure. Once inside the cell, a nuclear localisation signal attached to the CRISPR enzyme mediates active transport into the cell’s nucleus, where the genomic DNA is located. Guided by the sequence of the RNA guide, the CRISPR machinery targets a specific location of the genome where it makes a double-strand break. The plant cell itself repairs this break in its genome, yet often involving small errors. These errors may cause a gene to be ‘knocked-out’. Gene knock-outs can convert many more traits than intuition may lead you to believe.
After transfection, the protoplasts are embedded in a proprietary hydrogel. This hydrogel allows proper gas and molecule exchange, while culturing the cells in an individual manner. The protoplasts rebuild their cell wall and start to divide. Once the proliferated material is visible by the naked eye, it is called a proto-callus and isolated from the hydrogel. After isolation, proto-calli are cultured on plates with solid media and exposed to light, to allow shoots to form. Next, shoots are cut and transferred to root-inducing media. It is most often at this stage that genetic testing is done to select lines edited according to the editing objective. After rooting we speak of an in vitro plant that gets ‘deflasked’, meaning it is transferred to non-sterile soil and leaves the lab for the greenhouse where propagation and/or seed collection, and further trait analysis start.
Every product is free of foreign DNA, and crop and CRISPR-enzyme agnostic.
Every product is free of foreign DNA, and crop and CRISPR-enzyme agnostic.
You bring a commercial variety and an outcome you want from it.
We define the target(s) together with your team, make the edit directly in your own lines, and return genetically uniform plants ready for your programme.
Fitó is using BioMaas to create new variation directly in the breeding lines behind its tomato varieties, with the two R&D teams setting priorities together.
You bring a validated target and tell us where it needs to go!
We deploy it in a commercially relevant crop, transgene-free, and give breeders a route to it.
Plantik’s heat-tolerance targets, validated in tomato, are going into strawberry through BioMaas.
You bring a commercial problem, and the question of whether genome editing is the answer.
We assess the route, map the opportunities, requirements and risks, alongside your team.
Biographica’s causal gene discovery and edit design connect straight to our editing and regeneration, so a breeder can go from trait problem to plant with one partner.
Most programmes start here: a conversation about the crop, the ambition and whether genome editing is the route.
No target needed.
Leveraging what we’ve learned from working with our clients, we advance our own pipeline for trait validation.
Strawberry’s clonally propagated, octoploid genome makes transgene-free editing and single-cell regeneration essential; our protoplast-based procedure delivers both, already across >10 varieties, tackling fungal diseases and heat.
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Tomato has been our playground from the beginning: we no longer turn down any variety, and its fast regeneration and small diploid genome make it ideal for developing multi-trait and advanced editing.
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We’ve successfully transformed four different cauliflower cultivars, accelerating the path toward a more nutritious and sustainable future.
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Lettuce is a very regenerable crop and yield increase can be facilitated with a delay of flowering. That said, delayed flowering is a trait that does not help speed up breeding cycles and is perhaps best added last!
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With over 90% editing efficiency and a turnaround of just four months from a single cell to a fully grown plant, we’re accelerating the future of plant-based medicine.
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In June 2026 the EU adopted rules under which plants edited without foreign DNA are treated similarly to conventionally bred varieties.
We did not build our genome-editing capability to fit new regulations. We built it because we believe it is the best answer to one of agriculture’s biggest challenges: getting resilient traits into real crops, efficiently and without foreign DNA.
The regulation is the floor, not the ceiling. BioMaas is how you build on it.
To pioneer a new approach to plant breeding for better, more resilient crops – at scale.
Today we have built a proprietary BioMaas platform, used by leading agricultural producers, and advance our own trait validation pipeline, creating knowledge and progenitors for breeding programmes that create new fruits and vegetables.
We transform scientific insight into practical tools for commercial gain to better our world, balancing effort with progress.
We are motivated intrinsically to achieve our mission because we are curious, we like challenges, and we genuinely enjoy what we do.
We believe that openness and respect make for fruitful collaborations, and that collaborations are crucial to our success.
If your crop is a tomato, strawberry, brassica, lettuce or sugar beet - most likely! For other crops we will set up a protocol development trajectory together.
All to be discussed! We aim for longer-term partnership models. Genome editing is a tool you add to your breeding pipeline, increasing in value with every project as we learn together what works in your varieties. Usually we agree on a minimum commitment per year, working towards pre-set milestones. The technology access fee related to our platform is included.
As our workflow is CRISPR-enzyme agnostic, the choice of enzyme is up to you; we have several in house to choose from. Next to that, we will guide and, if desired, pre-negotiate on your behalf for any trait IP.
No! Your germplasm, your edited variety.
How long from signing to first edited plant? Depending on the crop, between 0.5 and 1.5 years we deliver an in vitro plant back to you, ready for propagation and small-scale testing. We are also happy to facilitate this at an alternative location.
How much time do I actually save versus crossing and backcrossing? That is best answered by you: our editing procedure is done in one generation, as outcrossing of transgenes is not required.
Can I avoid backcrossing altogether by editing directly in my elite variety? Yes!
Can several traits or varieties run in parallel? Yes!
Much more than you may think! A knock-out or slight genomic change does not only lead to loss of traits, but can result in changes to regulatory pathways leading to móre color, móre flowering or móre disease resistance or abiotic-stress tolerance, and more!