Merging Business Models and Mindsets to Boost Bayer’s Herbicide Pipeline

Bayer and German biotech start-up Targenomix, a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, joined forces a decade ago. The teams have been working together successfully since 2014, with the discovery and development of the industry’s first new post-emergence herbicide mode of action for broadacre weed control in 30 years supported by the collaboration. The partnership was brought to the next level with the acquisition of Targenomix. In focus: to deliver novel systems biology approaches for innovative crop protection discovery. 

Here, Sebastian Klie and Tilman Burgert who are co-leading the company share insights on their beginnings, on progress and what’s next.

Tilman, Sebastian, before doing a deep dive into Targenomix’ journey, tell us what is key to this partnership?  Remind us again – what is a foundational element of Bayer’s new crop protection systems biology platform.

Sebastian: We believe that a systems biology-centered approach is accelerating Bayer’s research and early development pipeline in multiple areas – identifying novel modes of action, assessing novel targets, finding and optimizing compounds and de-select potentially toxic molecules. 

Tilman: In a broader sense, it will boost the ability to deliver on Bayer’s commitment to design safe and effective molecules faster. Targenomix’ expertise will accelerate the discovery and development of molecules that farmers need to meet future dynamic challenges like climate change and increasing resistance.

When looking in the rearview mirror, what was the biggest surprise for you when kicking off this chapter together? And what was the biggest challenge over the last months?

Tilman: While 2023 was about establishing and strengthening connections with the Bayer teams, 2024 was the year to bring Targenomix’ strategy to life. We quickly realized that we need to maximize our contribution to Bayer’s pipeline and the CropKey vision  – we needed to do more, and not more of the same. We decided to push our boundaries faster than envisioned and expand into areas where we are less experienced.  The good news: The way we’ve designed our novel setup fits these needs. Targenomix operates at arm’s-length and maintains a flexibility-focused business model with a start-up mindset and agile culture, through which it is possible to now deliver directly into Bayer’s herbicide pipeline.

Sebastian: As our priorities were shaping up nicely, we experimented a lot over the year, especially in those novel areas. It was a continual improvement process, cycling between conducting research, reviewing results, reflecting and changing workflows, and then re-starting again. Hitting the repeat button and constantly adjusting your own process is challenging, both mentally for each individual and together as a team. But we learned so much, and it was highly energizing and inspiring how the team navigated through those fast-paced times.

 
Tilman: A more concrete example – we had to acknowledge that we hit a glass ceiling in our computational approaches covering decision making by data driven models in all aspects of our research. We decided to close that gap and hire data scientists to complement our team of senior experts to strengthen and further leverage our expertise in data exploitation and prediction. Furthermore, we established collaborations with service providers that complement our skills in strategically critical areas.

What are you particularly proud of in 2024?

Tilman: I am super excited that we have found a way to contribute much more directly to the Crop Science pipeline – we set up ourselves in a way that we moved from “suggesting novel modes of actions” to a fully functional early research company in 18 months.

Sebastian: I am proud that in 2024 we reached the point – after an initial phase of exploration – of consolidation and focus using our learnings to optimize our workflows for operational efficiency using omics data and computational models to drive our decision making for maximal output. This will be key to fully exploiting our systems biology framework within 2025.

How did the partnership with Bayer evolve?

Sebastian: It was important to ensure a two-way data flow between Targenomix and Bayer. The IT & Data Science team at Targenomix, in collaboration with experts in Bayer, did a tremendous job in linking our system with the enterprise network. This will enable us to quickly channel data, enable data integrity and improve collaboration.

Tilman: We suggested two novel chemically validated targets for Weed Control. Both have been prioritized for hit identification by a cross functional team, and we are extremely proud that Bayer colleagues are now actively working on it.

Sebastian: We have completed a joint project with colleagues in the field of Human Safety that allows us to predict at an early stage which chemicals are potentially toxic by using readouts from cell-based systems instead of animal testing. This is a major step towards reducing and ultimately replacing animal testing for the safety assessment of our compounds. This is a true milestone in our collaboration, and it shows what we can achieve together – the deep understanding and expertise of Bayer in the regulatory landscape in combination with Targenomix’ capabilities in omics data analysis and machine-learning techniques.

What will be a game changer in the years to come?

Sebastian: What we are currently observing is the growing importance of generative AI and foundational large language models in the genomic and protein spaces. Applying these developments and leveraging public data as well as Bayer’s and Targenomix’ internal data, we are convinced to massively advance the Crop Protection research in the years to come. 

Tilman: This will drive much faster development cycles. And cheaper as we will be able to selecting the right compounds faster. We believe that we are going to see more safe and more specific herbicides in the future. In addition, there will be more novel modes of action that will allow a more targeted approach in the field. This will be of benefit to the farmer and society.