{"id":21490,"date":"2026-05-06T07:48:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=21490"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:49:00","slug":"novin-agritech-receives-usda-grant-to-develop-novel-traits-for-wheat-accelerate-trait-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/Q2\/novin-agritech-receives-usda-grant-to-develop-novel-traits-for-wheat-accelerate-trait-integration","title":{"rendered":"Novin AgriTech receives USDA grant to develop novel traits for wheat, accelerate trait integration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/novinagritech.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Novin AgriTech<\/a>, a startup whose platform combines agricultural expertise and biotechnology to develop novel traits for cereal crops, has received an eight-month, $174,906 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nifa.usda.gov\/\">National Institute of Food and Agriculture<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ag.purdue.edu\/department\/btny\/directory.html?_gl=1#\/mohamm20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mohsen Mohammadi<\/a>, co-founder of Novin AgriTech, is the wheat breeder and an associate professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ag.purdue.edu\/department\/agry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Department of Agronomy<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/ag.purdue.edu\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">College of Agriculture<\/a>. He leads Purdue\u2019s soft red winter wheat breeding program, with research focused on improving grain yield, enhancing resistance to Fusarium head blight and dissecting the genetics of sustainability traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohammadi developed two patented cereal transformation platforms: InPACT, Novin AgriTech\u2019s core platform, and a nanoparticle-assisted ultrasound gene delivery system. They enable direct genetic manipulation of elite wheat germplasm. He and his colleagues will use the SBIR funding to develop the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) trait and introduce it into elite wheat cultivars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe project will reinforce Novin AgriTech\u2019s positioning as a platform company,\u201d he said. \u201cOur mission is to empower the cereal crop ecosystem with practical, scalable and future-ready solutions that tackle the evolving challenges of food security, health, resource efficiency, and crop resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Benefits of the funded project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohammadi said the eight-month SBIR-funded project will culminate in several strategic advantages for Novin AgriTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Technical validation of core platform. \u201cSuccessful delivery will demonstrate our genotype-independent, tissue culture-free transformation platform can be applied to a commercially critical trait: NUE and farm-ready cultivars,\u201d Mohammadi said. \u201cThis major proof point will show the platform is fast, trait-relevant and scalable across elite wheat varieties.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Platform expansion to other traits and crops. \u201cOnce validated for NUE, the same workflow can be rapidly extended to other complex traits like abiotic stress and disease resistance, and other crops like barley, oat and sorghum,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Acceleration toward commercialization. \u201cBy identifying the promising early-generation plants within eight months, the project significantly de-risks downstream development and shortens timelines to field trials and regulatory positioning, especially in gene-editing-friendly markets like the United States,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Strengthened partnering and investment positions. \u201cDemonstrating NUE improvements in wheat, the most widely cultivated food crop in the world, provides compelling validation for strategic partnerships with ag biotech companies and nondilutive funding including additional grants from the federal government and venture investors,\u201d Mohammadi said. \u201cThe project also directly supports discussions with other companies by providing data-backed credibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn summary, completion of this project will transform the technology from technology demonstration into a high-value product by validating real-world nitrogen efficiency gains; reducing adoption risk; and strengthening Novin AgriTech\u2019s positioning for Phase II funding, industry partnerships and market entry,\u201d Mohammadi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other Novin AgriTech milestones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohammadi said Novin AgriTech recently established a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the USDA. He said InPACT has been advanced in part through this collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis CRADA milestone provides us (a) strong collaborative USDA-Agricultural Research Service environment, further advancing the technology to mutually shared objectives such as gene editing techniques,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2023, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/Q1\/purdue-researchers-receive-over-143000-to-strengthen-marketplace-interest-in-their-ip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Purdue Innovates Trask Innovation Fund awarded Mohammadi $47,773<\/a> to support the research that led to InPACT technology and the subsequent launch of Novin AgriTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe funding helped my colleagues and I to strengthen InPACT with more molecular data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohammadi disclosed his inventions to the <a href=\"https:\/\/purdueinnovates.org\/otc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization<\/a> (OTC), which applied for patents to protect the intellectual property. OTC licensed the technologies to Novin AgriTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Novin AgriTech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/novinagritech.com\/\">Novin AgriTech<\/a>, a spinoff of Purdue University co-founded by Mohsen Mohammadi, PhD; Samad Ahadian, PhD; and Nirman Nepal, PhD, combines deep familiarity with wheat traits with cutting-edge transformation technique to develop novel and value-added traits for wheat, delivering real-world impact across farming, food production and ingredient supply chains. Our mission is to empower the cereal crop ecosystem with practical, scalable and future-ready solutions that tackle the evolving challenges of food security, health, resource efficiency, and resilience to drought and heat. For more information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/novinagritech.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/novinagritech.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/purdueinnovates.org\/otc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization<\/a> operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university\u2019s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2025, the office reported 161 deals executed with 269 technologies licensed, 479 invention disclosures received, and 267 U.S. and international patents received. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact <a href=\"mailto:otcip@prf.org\">otcip@prf.org<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative \u2014 at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"note\" class=\"post-content__attribution \">\n    <div class=\"columns\"> \n                    <div class=\"column\"> \n                <p class=\"post-content__source\">\n                    <strong>Media contact:<\/strong> Steve Martin, <a href=\"mailto:sgmartin@prf.org\">sgmartin@prf.org<\/a>                <\/p>\n            <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Novin AgriTech, a startup whose platform combines agricultural expertise and biotechnology to develop novel traits for cereal crops, has received an eight-month, $174,906 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the U.S. Department of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":21488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[35],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-21490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prf","source-purdue-research-foundation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21535,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21490\/revisions\/21535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21490"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=21490"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=21490"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=21490"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}