In a newly announced collaboration, Profluent Bio, a pioneer in generative AI for protein design, and Corteva Agriscience, a global leader in agricultural innovation, are joining forces to create the next generation of sustainable, resilient crops. The partnership marks a turning point for both AI and agriculture, bringing digital design directly into the field. Together, the two companies aim to develop crops with improved yields, pest and drought resistance, and enhanced nutritional value.

“Agriculture has been on our radar since the earliest days of Profluent,” said Ali Madani, CEO of Profluent Bio. “Our AI platform is designed to create functional biological sequences from scratch, and agriculture is one of the most direct ways those capabilities can impact sustainability and crop resilience. Corteva’s leadership in plant science and field validation made them the perfect partner.”

The collaboration unites Profluent’s ProGen3 and OpenCRISPR-1™ technologies with Corteva’s global R&D programs, linking AI-driven protein design to validation in crops grown under real-world conditions. Profluent will use its AI design platform to develop new gene-editing systems that Corteva will test and use in its precision breeding and plant genetics platforms, Catalyst and Genlytix™.

“The partnership with Corteva is special because it connects that generative power with one of the most advanced R&D engines in agriculture,” Madani said. “It’s a direct bridge from in silico design to field-level impact.”

One of Profluent’s most significant milestones, OpenCRISPR-1, exemplifies how AI can expand the boundaries of biological design. Created entirely by Profluent’s AI and trained on millions of CRISPR–Cas sequences, OpenCRISPR-1 stands out for its high precision and low off-target activity. Though it shares the basic structure of Cas9, it differs by more than 400 amino acids—a level of divergence once thought impossible. Despite that, it matches or even surpasses Cas9 in accuracy and versatility, serving as a foundation for next-generation systems such as base or prime editors. It shows how AI can move beyond mimicking biology to design molecular tools built for precision and safety.

Developments like OpenCRISPR-1 show why this moment is right for bringing AI-designed proteins into agriculture. AI foundation models have advanced rapidly, capable of generating and refining complex biological designs at unprecedented speed. In contrast, agriculture has long been constrained by slow growth cycles and limited experimental throughput. With climate change, resource shortages, and rising food demand, the case for faster and smarter tools to enhance crop innovation has never been stronger.

“Until now, our AI-designed genome editors had been validated mainly in mammalian and microbial systems,” Madani said. “Partnering with Corteva allows us to extend that capability to plant genomes, which come with their own unique complexity. By integrating our models into Corteva’s programs, we can directly link AI-driven design to field-scale validation.”

For both companies, the collaboration underscores how AI-driven design and large-scale agricultural testing can complement each other. Profluent brings cutting-edge molecular design, while Corteva provides the infrastructure, expertise, and data to translate those designs into practical agricultural tools that can improve crops more efficiently.

“Ultimately, success is when AI-authored biology becomes a dependable part of the agricultural toolkit,” Madani said. “When the models we’ve trained on billions of proteins help growers achieve higher yields and resilience, we’ll know the promise of AI-driven biology is being realized.”

Beyond agriculture, Profluent has expanded its generative-biology platform into therapeutics through a collaboration with Revvity to develop AI-enhanced base editors. Together, these efforts reflect a broader shift: applying large-scale protein models to create functional, safe, and sustainable biological tools.

As AI and biology continue to converge, the partnership between Profluent and Corteva shows what that future can look like in practice. It’s not about distant promises, but about building tools now. The need for a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable agriculture system is urgent, and Profluent’s work with Corteva is meeting that challenge.