Flagship Pioneering has launched Terrana Biosciences, a new company harnessing advanced RNA technology to create adaptive, targeted solutions for agriculture.

Backed by a US$50 million initial investment from Flagship, Terrana emerges after four years of platform development with a mission to enhance crop resilience, protect yields and confront global food system challenges.

Terrana’s RNA platform enables the development of next-generation agricultural tools that work with the plant’s native biology – without altering its genome. These RNA-based solutions, which can be applied throughout a plant’s lifecycle, are designed to help crops withstand disease, pests and climate stress.

“With Terrana, we are bringing an entirely new dimension of innovation to agriculture through similar RNA technology that we pioneered in human health,” said Noubar Afeyan, PhD, co-founder of Terrana, and CEO and founder of Flagship Pioneering. “This platform gives farmers timely, tailored solutions to protect and enhance crops in a changing environment.”

The company told New AG International that Terrana’s proprietary approach builds on the plant’s natural use of self-replicating RNAs to influence traits like growth and stress response. Using AI-driven tools, the company has built a vast library of native RNAs and created a design system capable of rapidly engineering new plant traits. Already, Terrana has demonstrated proof of concept in tomatoes, corn and soy, and established a pipeline of over 15 products across specialty and row crops.

The company’s first suite of technologies includes three product classes:
• Prevent: RNA-based products that act like plant vaccines, priming immune responses.
• Protect: Tools to deliver peptides or small molecules that fight active infections.
• Improve: Products that enhance traits like drought tolerance or heat resistance.

These formulations – designed for application as foliar sprays or seed treatments – aim to fit seamlessly into current agricultural practices.

“Farmers today face too many decisions based on guesswork and outdated data,” said Ryan Rapp, co-founder and CEO of Terrana, told New AG International. “Terrana enables real-time, responsive crop management with biologically-based solutions that can be deployed from seed to harvest.”

Terrana is led by a team with deep expertise in plant biology, regulatory strategy and agricultural innovation. In addition to Rapp, the leadership includes Matthew Lingard as CTO, Folashade Sabitu as Head of Regulatory, and Ramtin Ahmadi as VP of Strategy and Operations. The board features agriculture industry veterans, including Hugh Grant, former Monsanto CEO, and Amy O’Shea, CEO of Invaio Sciences.