Tag: facilities

Moa Technology has opened a second research facility based at the Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC) situated at Cawood between Leeds and York (UK).  The pipeline of promising lead candidates flowing from Moa Technology’s high throughput invivo screening platforms at its Oxford headquarters will be tested instate-of-the-art glasshouses and on into field trials on this 75 hectare site on prime arable land.

STC has been at the heart of agricultural and horticultural research for more than seventy years and is well connected with the UK’s other leading research organisations through CHAP, the Agri-Tech Centre for Health and Crop Protection.

The Moa team at STC will confirm new herbicide active ingredient lead molecules, developing profiles of crop selectivity and weed control spectrum.  The focus will be on previously unexplored chemistry and resistance-breaking new modes of action.

Moa’s CEO Dr Virginia Corless commented: ‘We are proud to be opening this new facility on an important site with a long track record of successfully contributing to sustainable food production.’

Chief Technology Officer at Moa, Dr Shuji Hachisu, added: ‘This significant increase in our screening power will boost the progress of exciting new herbicide candidate molecules through to development and commercialisation.’

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Baroness Nicola Blackwood, UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Innovation, met the Moa team when she officially opened the Oxford BioEscalator.

Moa’s facilities are based in the BioEscalator, which is a new innovation centre for high-potential, early-stage companies, strategically located on Oxford University’s Old Road Campus.

The BioEscalator provides facilities for bioscience start-ups.  It also acts as a hub for the University and the region, hosting events aimed at increasing collaboration within the wider innovation ecosystem.

Claire Shingler, Business Manager of the BioEscalator, said that “The official opening was a great event for everyone to come together and celebrate the success of the BioEscalator so far.  We were delighted that Baroness Blackwood could meet some of our tenants, including Moa.”

Dr Clément Champion, Chief Scientific Officer at Moa, explained to the Minister how the company’s technology is focused on the urgent need to find and commercialise herbicides with new modes of action.  He highlighted the threat to global food security posed by herbicide resistant weeds.  Baroness Blackwood and her party then had a chance to see moa’s new laboratories that house the company’s innovative herbicide discovery platforms based on cutting-edge plant physiology and genomics.

During the launch event, Baroness Blackwood said: “It is completely clear how brilliant the BioEscalator is going to be for incubating innovation. Its modular and scalable approach, and its opportunities for cross-fertilisation, are clearly going to prove invaluable.”

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