Newswise \u2014 AMES, Iowa \u2013 Plant scientists have used a standard \u201cgene gun\u201d since 1988 to genetically modify crops for better yield, nutrition, pest resistance and other valuable traits.<\/p>\n
That technology, which loads genetic materials on tiny particles and uses high pressure to shoot them into plant cells, has presented challenges to plant scientists, including inefficiency, inconsistency and even tissue damage caused by high-velocity particles.<\/p>\n
But that was just the way these experiments worked, and plant scientists worked around the challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t even know we had a problem,\u201d said Kan Wang, an Iowa State University agronomist and Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Life Sciences.<\/p>\n
Shan Jiang, an Iowa State associate professor of materials science and engineering, wondered if his research group could do something to improve that basic tool of plant research. Ultimately, he and the group determined plant scientists had been \u201cshooting a bullet without a barrel\u201d for 40 years.<\/p>\n
A paper just published by the journal Nature Communications details the research team\u2019s search for a solution, its subsequent findings and the invention that launched a startup company.<\/p>\n
The project was more than solving a single engineering problem, though. Jiang, because of his research resume, really wanted to use his engineering approach to improve plant science and, potentially, human lives.<\/p>\n
Post-doc lessons<\/p>\n
After earning his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jiang went to work as a post-doctoral researcher in the Langer Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the lab of Robert Langer, once called the \u201csmartest man in Boston\u201d by the Boston Globe and co-founder and, until last August, a board member for Moderna, Inc., a leader in the creation of mRNA medicine, including vaccines for COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Jiang was one of 15 post-docs working on new ideas to deliver genetic materials for medical therapies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such difficult research,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But one outcome, even after research funding dried up, was the use of messenger RNA to produce proteins that could help the body fight off disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat research had a profound impact in my life,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cWhen I arrived at Iowa State, I thought about what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there was no research hospital and limited opportunities for medical research.<\/p>\n
He looked around in the scientific literature and read about delivering DNA into plant cells to introduce or boost particular traits, including high crop yields, resistance to insects or tolerance of heat.<\/p>\n
He picked up the phone and made a cold call.<\/p>\n
Wang answered and was surprised to be talking to a materials engineer but was interested enough to schedule a lunch and talk about the challenges of plant science research, particularly the challenge of delivering genetic materials through a plant\u2019s tough cell walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such an overlooked area,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cVery few materials scientists were working on plant cell delivery. Agriculture is always overlooked \u2013 people want to cure cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
From losing patience to a shock discovery<\/p>\n
The decades-old \u201cgene gun\u201d used by plant scientists for what\u2019s known as \u201cbiolistic\u201d delivery of genetic information works by coating gold or tungsten microparticles, just a few millionths of a meter in size, with genetic material and then shooting particle and cargo into plant cells.<\/p>\n
Some of those cells survive the particle bombardment, take up the introduced DNA and express the corresponding traits. Whole plants can then be grown from the transformed cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, biolistic delivery faces notable challenges with efficiency, consistency, and tissue damage caused by high-velocity microprojectiles, which hinder regeneration and transformation,\u201d Jiang and co-authors wrote in their paper about the project (see team and paper details below). \u201cAdditionally, it often leads to fragmented and multiple transgene insertions in the genome, resulting in unpredictable gene expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jiang and his research collaborators began looking for solutions \u2013 \u201cWe tried to minimize the error bar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The researchers tried everything they could think of, but Jiang said they made little progress. After four years, it was time to reconsider the time and effort spent on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were losing hope and patience,\u201d Jiang said.<\/p>\n
In one last push for a solution, the research team ran computational fluid dynamics models of gene gun particle flows and discovered a bottleneck within an internal barrel. It seemed too narrow and restrictive, leading to particle loss, disrupted flow, decreased pressures, slower speeds, and uneven distribution at the target cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings pinpoint critical limitations in the gene gun design and led us to hypothesize that engineering the flow dynamics within the gene gun could significantly improve its efficiency and consistency,\u201d Jiang and his collaborators wrote.<\/p>\n
To do that, the researchers designed a new internal barrel for the gene gun \u2013 they call it a \u201cFlow Guiding Barrel\u201d \u2013 and Connor Thorpe, a doctoral student and 3D-printing hobbyist, printed one for testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt improved performance by 50%, then two, three, five, ten, twenty times,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cI was very shocked, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Easier plant transformations<\/p>\n
The computer modeling shows a conventional gene gun directs about 21% of loaded particles toward its plant cell targets while a gene gun modified with the Flow Guiding Barrel delivers nearly 100%.<\/p>\n
Subsequent tests by plant scientists found, for example, a 22-fold increase in transient transfection efficiency in tests with onions, a 17-fold improvement in viral infection efficiency in maize seedlings and double the efficiency of experiments using CRISPR genome editing tools in wheat.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo previous device has achieved such improvements, offering substantial potential for advancing genotype independent transformation and genome editing for plants,\u201d paper co-authors wrote.<\/p>\n
Wang, the Iowa State plant scientist originally approached by Jiang, noted laboratory \u201cimprovements of 10-fold and sometimes 20-fold. We\u2019re able to work far more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yiping Qi, a professor of plant science and landscape architecture at the University of Maryland and a project collaborator, said the Flow Guiding Barrel \u201cwill make plant transformation and genome editing easier with improved efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one test, for example, he said the Flow Guiding Barrel allowed CRISPR reagents to penetrate deeper into the shoot apical meristem of bread wheat, the part of the plant where cell and leaf production occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis translated to the higher efficiency of heritable genome editing in the next generation of wheat,\u201d Qi said. \u201cWhile this demonstration was done in wheat, one can envision such improvement can also benefit other crops, like barley, sorghum, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support for research and development of the Flow Guiding Barrel came from Iowa State sources, including the Digital and Precision Agriculture Research and Innovation Platform; The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture; the National Science Foundation; and the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n
A startup for plant science<\/p>\n
The Flow Guiding Barrel worked so well, Jiang; Thorpe; Wang; Kyle Miller, a former doctoral student in Jiang\u2019s lab; and Alan Eggenberger, an Iowa State research scientist in materials science and engineering; took steps to investigate the commercial potential of the invention. Jiang and Thorpe also enrolled in Iowa State\u2019s startup programs and later co-founded a company with Jibing Lin, an Iowa State graduate and startup leader. The U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Small Business Technology Transfer program has supported the company\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project would not be possible without close collaboration with plant biologists,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cWe believe the best way to give back is to make our tools commercially available so they can be broadly used in the plant science community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Iowa State University Research Foundation filed for patent protection on the innovation and has licensed the commercial rights to the co-founders\u2019 company, Hermes Biomaterials Inc. The company is based at the Iowa State University Research Park and is manufacturing its products in Iowa. The company continues its customer discovery work based on the National Science Foundation\u2019s Innovation Corps program and has started selling products.<\/p>\n
With efficiency gains of 10- and 20-fold, Jiang said the Flow Guiding Barrel could save plant scientists and agriculture companies millions of dollars in time and plant or product turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a small device, and it seems overly simple,\u201d Jiang said. \u201cBut the benefits it can bring are invaluable. It enables the development of safer and more effective strategies to improve crops that can better withstand environmental changes, enhance nutritional content, and contribute to sustainable energy production.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 30 \u2013<\/p>\n
The research team<\/strong><\/p>\n Iowa State University Materials Science and Engineering: Shan Jiang, Connor Thorpe, Alan Eggenberger, Ritinder Sandhu<\/p>\n Iowa State Agronomy and Crop Bioengineering Center: Kan Wang, Qing Ji, Keunsub Lee, Steven Whitham<\/p>\n Iowa State Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology: Aline Chicowski, Weihui Xu<\/p>\n University of Maryland Plant Science and Landscape Architecture: Yiping Qi, Weifeng Luo<\/p>\n Read the paper<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEnhancing biolistic plant transformation and genome editing with a flow guiding barrel,\u201d Nature Communications, July 1, 2025, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-025-60761-x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newswise \u2014 AMES, Iowa \u2013 Plant scientists have used a standard \u201cgene gun\u201d since 1988 to genetically modify…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1943,3653,16721,815,26923,26921,1941,26920,26922,159,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-31966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-all-journal-news","9":"tag-biotech","10":"tag-engineering","11":"tag-genetics","12":"tag-iowa-state-university","13":"tag-nature-journal","14":"tag-newswise","15":"tag-plant-sciencesagronomygenetic-engineering","16":"tag-plants","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114782369589998622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}