ISU graduate creates new ‘gene gun’ used by global research companies

Connor Thorpe was working toward his PhD several years ago, when he began to worry he wouldn’t graduate on time. The technology he was using for his research wasn’t efficient enough.

Thorpe was studying plant gene delivery at Iowa State University and was tasked with using a device that introduces new genetic materials to plant cells or tissue — commonly called a “gene gun” — to modify plant DNA as a part of his research.

But after two or three months of using the gene gun, he found it wasn’t giving him consistent results.

So, Thorpe took matters into his own hands and began researching ways to improve the gene gun.

Before coming to Iowa, Thorpe earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Arizona. He’d used a lot of 3D printing, which is a process of creating three-dimensional objects by layering materials in a digital design.

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Through a gene gun simulation, Thorpe was able to see the problem was in the gun’s guiding barrel, which is the part of the device that projects tiny particles of DNA into the plant’s tissues. It had “poor particle flow.”

Thorpe decided he would use a 3D printer to create a piece that would fix the problem. His ISU lab didn’t have a 3D printer, but he had one at home.

He got to work, making nearly 1,000 variations of a new guiding barrel out of his apartment.

“I love doing it,” Thorpe said. “I'd print them overnight, then bring them into the lab in the morning and test them. Then we started seeing trends.”

Gene guns were invented in the 1980s and started out as one of the only methods researchers could use to genetically modify crops and plants.

“People all around the world still use the gene gun in academic labs depending on what species you're working on and what your experiment is,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe said gene guns work by using pulsing helium gas to propel gold particles coated in genetic material and proteins through the gun at high speeds into the plant’s tissue.

“The idea is that the gold particles will puncture the cell wall, and once they're inside the cell, the DNA, the RNA or the protein on the gold will release and then enter the nucleus,” Thorpe said. “That's the basic principle behind how it works.”

Since developing the modified gun gene in the university’s lab, Thorpe and other researchers at ISU have launched a startup company — Hermes Biomaterials — to sell the gene gun across the country and continue their research. He said the product has been commercialized and patented by ISU as well.

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Thorpe, who completed his PhD in material science and engineering in July, said being the chief technology officer, cofounder and an inventor at Hermes Biomaterials has been “very exciting.”

“Starting this program, coming in and working side-by-side with very well-known plant biologists at Iowa State and other universities, has been great,” Thorpe said. “To me, it's just super fulfilling getting to see not only that it worked but that actually other people are using it, and it has a real benefit to the world.”

Thorpe said since the modified gene gun was launched, it has been purchased by universities and labs across the country and around the world to aid their plant research.

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He said the gun has been used in the laboratories of global biotechnology companies like Bayer, based in Germany; the agrochemical company Syngenta, based in Switzerland; and crop protection company Corteva, based in Indianapolis.

Thorpe said working collaboratively with biologists has been essential in creating the modified gene gun.

“We work hand in hand with biologists, and it's not just (Hermes Biomaterials) that did this,” Thorpe said. “It's group effort and I think that's critical.”

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com