Discovery
Target selection, switch design, construct development, and early biological validation.
Product pipeline
A pipeline advancing SwitchBlade across major crops and disease targets.
Upstream is developing a portfolio of seed traits powered by SwitchBlade. Programs span multiple crops and stages of development, progressing from discovery through field validation and partner development.
SwitchBlade Pipeline
From target selection to commercial development.
Upstream is advancing a portfolio of seed-based trait programs through discovery, proof of concept, field validation, and partner development. Each program is designed around a clear biological target, a crop-development path, and a partner-led route into elite or commercial germplasm.
Development pipeline
Development Path: A disciplined path from biological discovery to commercial partnership.
Proof of concept
Greenhouse and controlled-environment testing to evaluate trait expression and stress-response behavior.
Field validation
Small-plot and expanded field trials to assess performance under real agricultural conditions.
Elite germplasm integration
Partnering with seed companies to integrate SwitchBlade into elite or commercial germplasm and drive partner-selected genes of interest.
Partner-led commercialization
Regulatory work, go-to-market planning, product launch, and commercial deployment are led by the seed-company partner; Upstream supports the SwitchBlade technology package and data transfer.
Representative programs
Programs advancing through validation and partnership.
Field validation
Soybean disease-resistance trait
Seed-based disease-resistance trait development with small-plot field trials initiated in June 2024.
- Focus
- Disease resistance
- Current milestone
- Small-plot field trials
- Next objective
- Expanded validation and partner data package
Partner development
Tomato disease-resilience program
Tomato-focused trait development designed to combine premium quality characteristics with broad-spectrum disease-resistance potential.
- Focus
- Specialty crop resilience
- Partner context
- Sanitized partner-development program
- Objective
- High-quality tomato varieties with improved disease resilience
Efficacy trials
Rice disease-resilience program
Rice-focused programs targeting major diseases including rice blast and rice blight, advancing through efficacy evaluation with partner development planned as data mature.
- Focus
- Rice blast and rice blight
- Current milestone
- Efficacy trials
- Next objective
- Partner development and product advancement
Discovery / proof of concept
Platform expansion programs
Additional crop-disease and stress-resilience targets designed to extend RNA SwitchBlade logic across new crops, trait constructs, and partner-defined commercial priorities.
- Focus
- Pipeline expansion
- Development path
- Greenhouse and controlled-environment testing
- Partner fit
- Seed companies and crop technology partners
Partnering
Built for seed-company collaboration.
Upstream works with partners across the crop-development cycle, from early target selection through greenhouse evaluation, field validation, and transfer into seed-company germplasm programs. We are especially interested in collaborations where SwitchBlade can regulate partner-selected genes of interest in elite or commercial germplasm.
Technology evaluationAssess RNA SwitchBlade performance against defined crop targets.
Trait collaborationCo-develop disease-resistance or stress-resilience traits.
Greenhouse and field testingGenerate performance data in controlled and real-world environments.
Partner-led commercializationSeed-company partners lead regulatory strategy, go-to-market planning, product launch, and grower-facing commercialization.