SAN DIEGO, Oct. 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cibus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBUS), a leading agricultural technology company that develops plant traits to license to seed companies for royalties, has been named a finalist for the Euroseeds2024 InnovActor Award and will have its technology showcased on the InnovAction Stage at the Euroseeds2024 Congress. Cibus' presentation will be given by Dr. Jim Radtke (SVP Product Development) who was recently honored by the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The event will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 13-16 with the winner named at the 2024 InnovActor Ceremony on October 15.

"Innovation plays a crucial role in driving progress within the seed sector and Cibus' RTDS®-based high throughput breeding system is at the forefront of these innovations,” said Peter Beetham, PhD, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Cibus. "We are honored to be recognized by Euroseeds for technologies that have the power to transform the European agriculture industry.”

The Euroseeds InnovAction Stage is a new platform that shines a spotlight on the latest innovations reshaping the future of the seed industry in Europe and beyond. This year's event will focus on cutting-edge technologies in the areas of modern plant breeding, crop resilience, quality improvement, and data-driven decision-making in breeding.

Dr. Beetham added, "By increasing the speed and efficiency by which new plant traits are brought to market, we are empowering the seed industry to deliver solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture. With the broad applicability of Cibus' RTDS across crops, the potential of these technologies is endless in terms of its ability to improve on-farm productivity and enable a more resilient and sustainable agri-food system. From crops that are better able to withstand disease pressure and the evolving effects of climate change, to nutrient use efficiency, to agronomic traits that improve yield and beyond, we are delivering technology that enables our customers to innovate faster. Cibus is the solution for accelerated plant breeding.”

Those interested in attending Euroseeds2024 Congress can find event information, including registration details and more about the InnovAction Stage, on the event website.

About Cibus

Cibus is a leading independent plant trait company that develops and licenses plant traits to seed companies for royalties. Cibus is not a seed company, but rather a technology company that uses its proprietary gene editing technology to develop and commercialize plant traits at a fraction of the time and cost of conventional breeding. Cibus' strategy is focused on commercializing productivity traits for the world's major row crops with large acreage such as: canola, rice, soybean, corn and wheat. The Company targets traits that help manage farmers' seed productivity and sustainability challenges such as weeds, disease, and insects. The United Nations estimates that the impacts from these challenges cost the global economy approximately $300 billion annually. Cibus has a current portfolio of six traits, three of which are in commercial development and four of which are multi-crop traits associated with weed management and disease, including Sclerotinia resistance and a new weed management trait which are in advanced greenhouse and field trial stages.

About the Cibus Trait Machine™ process and Rapid Trait Development System™

A key element of Cibus' technology breakthrough is its high-throughput breeding process (referred to as the Trait Machine™ process). The Trait Machine process is a crop specific application of Cibus' patented Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS®). The proprietary technologies in RTDS integrate crop specific cell biology platforms with a series of gene editing technologies to enable a system of end-to-end crop specific precision breeding. It is the core technology platform for Cibus' Trait Machine process: the first standardized end-to-end semi-automated crop specific gene editing system that directly edits a seed company's elite germplasm. Each Trait Machine process requires a crop specific cell biology platform that enables Cibus to edit a single cell from a customer's elite germplasm and grow that edited cell into a plant with the Cibus edits. Cibus has a Trait Machine process developed for canola and rice and has already begun transferring their elite germplasm with Cibus edits back to customers.

The traits from Cibus' RTDS-based high-throughput breeding system are indistinguishable from traits developed using conventional breeding or from nature. RTDS does not integrate any foreign DNA or transgenes. Under the European Commission's current proposals, it is expected that products from Cibus' RTDS gene editing platform such as its Pod Shatter Reduction trait and Sclerotinia resistance traits for Canola and Winter Oilseed Rape would be considered 'Conventional-like'.

Cibus believes that RTDS and the Trait Machine process represent the technological breakthrough in plant breeding that is the ultimate promise of plant gene editing: "high- throughput gene editing systems operating as an extension of seed company breeding programs." In 2024, the Trait Machine process was cited by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most innovative products in 2024.

Because the Trait Machine process is intended to be integrated into seed companies' breeding operations, the customer relationship between Cibus and seed companies with which it engages is a collaborative relationship in which seed companies transfer elite germplasm to have a specific validated trait placed in the seed company's elite germplasm and expectation of delivery back to the seed company of their elite germplasm with the Cibus edit toward commercial development. Accordingly, Cibus refers to seed company "customers" in its disclosure once such a customer relationship has been initiated.

CIBUS CONTACTS:

INVESTOR RELATIONS

Karen Troeber

ktroeber@cibus.com

858-450-2636

Jeff Sonnek - ICR

jeff.sonnek@icrinc.com

MEDIA RELATIONS

media@cibus.com

(619) 849-6009

Colin Sanford

colin@bioscribe.com

203-918-4347