Kansas startup using wheat to power the future of medicine

WAMEGO (KSNT) – Wamego-based company, Tritica Biosciences, is redefining biomanufacturing by using wheat to overhaul the production of medicines.

Founded by Dr. Chris Miller, this Kansas startup is using wheat germ, a tiny embryo inside wheat kernels, to make proteins used to produce vaccines, allergy medication, gene therapy treatments and more. Its wheat germ cell-free system makes it faster, easier and more sustainable to produce high-value molecules used across the medical world.

These molecules, or biologics, represent the cutting edge of biomedical research. Typically, these biologics take several weeks to produce, but Tritica Biosciences can do it in mere hours.

“The seed goes in the soil and that embryo has to have every resource that it’s going to take to get through the soil until it can get a leaf up and start photosynthesis,” Miller said on the “Wheat’s On Your Mind” Podcast. “It’s packed with concentrated machinery. You couldn’t go take leaves or grass clippings and do what we do. It’s really specific to the embryo. In a nutshell, we can put in DNA for human insulin and the machines will pick up that instruction set and make it immediately,”

By using wheat, Tritica Biosciences is able to harness a renewable and low-cost bio-industrial platform to power the medical manufacturing of the future.

“How cool would it be to think about using Kansas wheat to manufacture insulin,” Chief Executive Officer Brandi Miller said. “If a farmer could grow a particular variety of wheat just for that purpose, it would be an incredible story for agriculture and health care.”

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