By Debbie Strickland

CuraGen Corp. is getting back to the roots of genetics research -- agriculture -- by inking its first corporate partnership agreement, a $25 million research collaboration with Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., of Des Moines, Iowa.

"We're the only firm who can provide complete coverage of the corn genome for Pioneer," said Gregory Went, executive vice president at CuraGen.

Founded in 1991 as a drug-discovery company, Branford, Conn.-based CuraGen will use its genomics analysis techniques to identify the specific genes responsible for superior performance in seeds.

"This is our first foray into agricultural research," Went said. "We can take the expertise we've picked up and gained in our human therapeutics program and apply it to agriculture, which offers earlier-stage commercial opportunities. DNA is DNA"

CuraGen researchers will examine 16 major agronomic traits in Pioneer-bred plants tailored for various climates, seasons and other conditions.

"We can identify the molecular basis for those hybrids and the productive regions of the germplasm, and really tune things more specifically and faster than traditional crossings, and at the same time protect Pioneer Hi-Bred's intellectual rights to those hybrids," said Went.

"What we're looking for," added Pioneer spokeswoman Donna Zahn, "are traits that contribute to product superiority, from maturity to yield to insect resistance to disease resistance," The company's major seed products are corn, soybeans, alfalfa, sunflower, canola and sorghum.

Pioneer's net sales last year topped $1.7 billion.

Under terms of the agreement, Pioneer will make a $7.5 million equity investment and will fund $17.5 million in research at CuraGen over five years. Pioneer has worldwide development and marketing rights for seed and agricultural products, while CuraGen will retain rights for human and animal health applications. Each party will receive royalties on the sale of licensed products developed by the other.

In addition, the companies will join forces to enhance CuraGen's bioinformatics system, GeneScape, a web-based system that enables gene discovery and database integration, as well as a suite of genetic analysis software that allows researchers to compare genetic profiles to discover genes. Pioneer is the first CuraGen collaborator to have development rights under the GeneScape system.

"It may seem like a distraction," said Went of his company's new program, which will add plant genetics experts to a staff that has grown from three at the company's inception to more than 120 today. But the farming foray will fund research and could yield royalties, while leaving the CuraGen with rights to any therapeutic application that emerges.

"There aren't many opportunities like this, and we feel pretty fortunate," he said.

The CuraGen deal marks Pioneer's third agreement with disease-oriented genomics companies in the last 18 months. In January 1996, Pioneer signed a comprehensive, $16 million corn gene sequencing and discovery agreement with Human Genome Sciences Inc., of Rockville, Md. In March of this year, Pioneer signed a research collaboration with Kimeragen Inc., of Newtown, Pa. That agreement, whose terms were undisclosed, centers on Kimeragen's "chimeraplasty" gene-enhancement technology.

Officials at both CuraGen and Pioneer described the potential results of their collaboration as revolutionary.

"The next several decades of agriculture will be shaped by the discoveries we make through genomics research," said Rick McConnell, senior vice president and director of research and product development at Pioneer, which has its own internal genomics research program.

"We stand at an inflection point in history," added Jonathan Rothberg, CuraGen's founder and CEO. "In much the same way that the development of plant hybrids contributed to the productivity of agriculture over the past 70 years, the discoveries we make in this collaboration will form the basis of agriculture for the next 70 years." *