Additional funding for Renaissance BioScience Corp's yeast-based RNA technology

Renaissance BioScience Corp., a leading global bioengineering company, announced today that it is receiving advisory services and additional funding of up to CAD 200,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) for the company’s research and development project entitled, "Development of yeast-RNA interference complexes as biocontrol and biotherapeutic agents."

This additional funding will be added to project funding of up to CAD 493,625 which was previously announced in 2020.

The added support from NRC IRAP will help further the company’s ongoing research and development efforts for the advancement of its patent-pending, yeast-based RNAi production and delivery platform technology for use in environmentally friendly, sustainable biocontrol and biotherapeutic technologies/products.

This precision RNAi technology, which has the potential for use in multiple applications—including agriculture, aquaculture and healthcare—makes use of bioengineered yeast to efficiently produce and deliver RNA bioactive molecules to target specific genes.

Using yeast in this way enables RNAi to be targeted precisely and then effectively delivered to any of multiple insect and animal species, as well as potentially to humans, in a rapid, cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner that addresses significant unmet needs in global biocontrol and biotherapeutics.

Importantly, these efforts also position Canada at the forefront of an emerging, rapid-growth market.

Dr. John Husnik, CEO and CSO:
 

"We are extremely pleased to receive this additional support from NRC IRAP to further speed our team’s R&D efforts to advance our yeast-based RNA production and delivery platform."

"The assistance offered by NRC IRAP is an important catalyst to advance the potential of this innovative technology in many different biocontrol and biotherapeutic applications, and their support adds not only important financial support but also third-party credibility to our technology development. We thank NRC IRAP for their support of our innovative work."

Renaissance also recently announced that an independent test of its environmentally safe, RNA-based biopesticide technology conducted on Colorado potato beetle larvae resulted in 98.3% mortality, and greatly reduced the amount of potato plant damage caused by the beetle.