Cut, Paste, Grow: Spearhead Bio Emerges to Transform Crop Genome Engineering with Nature-Inspired Tool

Courtesy: Danforth Plant Science Center

A powerful new player has entered the field of agricultural biotechnology. Spearhead Bio, launched today by the Danforth Technology Company (DTC), aims to accelerate and improve crop genome engineering using a proprietary technology known as TAHITI—short for Transposase Assisted Homology Independent Targeted Insertion. Unlike conventional genome editing methods, Spearhead’s approach taps directly into the plant’s own native DNA machinery, offering a more precise, predictable, and scalable path to crop improvement.

The technology, developed in the lab of Keith Slotkin, PhD, at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, builds on decades of research into transposable elements—segments of DNA that can move around the genome. “They just broke all the rules,” Slotkin recalled of his early fascination with these so-called “jumping genes.” What started as academic curiosity has now evolved into a commercial platform with broad implications for agriculture. Slotkin, a principal investigator at the Danforth Center, will serve as Spearhead Bio’s Chief Scientific Officer.

“Our goal is to unlock the full potential of plant genetics using the tools nature already provides,” Slotkin said. “By engineering the plant’s own genome-editing machinery, we’re creating a faster, cleaner, and more predictable path to crop improvement.”

Spearhead Bio’s TAHITI platform is a refined evolution of earlier work, particularly a system called TATSI, which was published in Nature in June 2024. TATSI combined CRISPR-Cas9 cutting with a natural plant transposase—essentially developing a system where one component created a genomic break and another slotted a gene into that site. While promising, the early version had notable off-target effects. With TAHITI, Slotkin’s team has fine-tuned the technology to reduce or eliminate those side effects, making it a more commercially viable option.

“CRISPR acts like genome scissors, but what the industry has lacked until now is the glue,” said Tom Laurita, CEO of both DTC and now Spearhead Bio. “That glue is TAHITI. I believe this may be the most impactful technology ever to have come out of the Danforth Center.”

The innovation couldn’t come at a better time. As climate change accelerates and global food demands mount, the agriculture sector is under pressure to deliver crops that are not only higher yielding but also more resilient and resource-efficient. Yet traditional breeding methods, even those augmented with CRISPR, face bottlenecks when it comes to reliably inserting large genetic payloads into specific locations in a plant genome—especially without introducing foreign DNA, which remains controversial in some markets. Spearhead’s technology offers a compelling workaround.

TAHITI enables both transgenic and non-transgenic insertions, expanding its usability across regulatory environments. The process involves two engineered elements: one delivers the transposase proteins, while the other carries the DNA cargo to be inserted. Crucially, these can be controlled independently, allowing the protein machinery to be removed once the insertion is complete. The result is a streamlined genome-editing process that reduces regulatory hurdles and speeds up time-to-market.

Slotkin’s lab has already tested the system in Arabidopsis and soybean, and early results are promising. The platform is also adaptable: different transposable elements can be tailored to different crops and use cases. While the initial applications involve relatively small genetic cargos (~8.6 kb), ongoing internal testing with larger constructs suggests that scalability will not be a limiting factor. “We are very interested in taking control of different transposable elements for different opportunities,” Slotkin said.

The company is already working with early customers—primarily AgBio firms with specific trait targets in mind but lacking the technical means to achieve them. According to Slotkin, these partners typically want to stack traits, such as coupling virus resistance with improved yield, and require high precision in gene placement to ensure the desired expression.

Supporting Spearhead Bio is a heavyweight scientific advisory board, including Larry Gilbertson, PhD (formerly of Monsanto and Bayer), Jerry Hjelle, PhD (a regulatory expert and president of Hjelle Advisors), and Jon Lightner, PhD, MBA (former VP of Biotech at Pioneer Hi-Bred). The startup’s financial backing includes an oversubscribed seed round led by DTC and joined by Rovaq Ventures, St. Louis BioGenerator, The Helix Fund, Hjelle Consulting Group, and Alta Grow Consulting.

The story of Spearhead Bio is also a story of institutional commitment. The Danforth Center, through its innovation arm DTC, has nurtured Slotkin’s vision since it was just a lab curiosity. From winning the 2019 Big Ideas 2.0 competition to securing four internal proof-of-concept grants and a National Science Foundation commercialization award via the NobleReach Foundation, the project exemplifies how fundamental plant science can lead to commercial impact when given the right ecosystem.

“Bridging the lab-to-field gap has always been the challenge,” Laurita said. “With Spearhead Bio, we’re demonstrating how public research institutions, venture support, and entrepreneurial focus can come together to meet that challenge head-on.”

Headquartered in St. Louis—America’s leading hub for plant science—Spearhead Bio is now positioning itself as a cornerstone of the next wave of precision agriculture. Its roots may lie in a discovery about “lazy” jumping genes, but its ambitions are anything but idle.