Key takeaways
- Foray Bioscience signed its first fabricated seed commercialization partnership.
- The agreement is with West Coast Chestnut, a tissue culture chestnut nursery.
- Fabricated seeds enable propagation from single plant cells into sowable embryos.
- The partnership targets faster time to market for chestnut varieties.
- The collaboration supports broader applications in reforestation and plant supply scaling.
Foray Bioscience Enters First Fabricated Seed Commercialization Partnership
Foray Bioscience announced its first seed partnership with West Coast Chestnut, marking the initial commercial deployment of Foray’s fabricated seed technology. The agreement follows validation of Foray’s approach to producing encapsulated plant embryos grown directly from plant cells that can be planted like conventional seeds.
According to the companies, the partnership reflects increasing demand for technologies that accelerate plant propagation and reduce the time required to bring new plant varieties to market.
Fabricated Seeds Designed To Accelerate Chestnut Propagation
Under the agreement, Foray Bioscience will develop fabricated seeds for select chestnut varieties. The goal is to shorten propagation timelines by enabling rapid bulking from single cells and reducing the acclimatization steps associated with traditional tissue culture methods.
The partnership includes a multi-year forward purchase agreement for fabricated seeds of regionally important chestnut cultivars. It also positions West Coast Chestnut as a validation partner for additional fabricated seed products intended for reforestation projects in the Pacific Northwest.
West Coast Chestnut’s Role In Technology Validation
West Coast Chestnut brings experience in tissue culture propagation, orchard development, and tree crop farming. According to the company, this background makes it well suited to pilot fabricated seed technology in commercial and restoration contexts.
Sawyer Clark of West Coast Chestnut said the organization has spent years establishing chestnut cultivars in tissue culture but noted that propagation remains slow and capital intensive. He stated that fabricated seeds offer a potential pathway for faster and more predictable scaling of chestnut production.
Foray Bioscience Platform And Long-Term Strategy
Integrating Cell Culture And AI-Driven Development
Dr. Ashley Beckwith, Founder and CEO of Foray Bioscience, said the partnership reflects a broader shift in how plants can be scaled. She noted that the company combines plant cell culture, AI-directed experimentation, and fabricated seed technology into a single platform designed to make propagation more predictable and repeatable.
The agreement builds on Foray’s broader platform strategy, which integrates physical bioproduction capabilities with its AI-enabled research and development software, Pando. Together, these systems are intended to support the systematic development and optimization of plant growth processes across multiple species and applications.
Foray Bioscience stated that the partnership represents an initial step toward expanding fabricated seed applications in agriculture, forestry, and reforestation where consistency, speed, and scale have historically been difficult to achieve.
