Heartland Plant Innovations is a farmer-owned, plant science services company at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan. Dusti Gallagher has been with HPI since its early days and joins Aaron on this episode to talk about the origins of HPI and how it continues to serve wheat farmers in Kansas and around the globe.
Welcome to the Wheats on Your Mind podcast. I'm Aaron Harries. Wheats on Your Mind is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. Our guest on this episode is Dusti Gallagher, president and CEO of Heartland Plant Innovations. Dusti has been in her current role since 2018. She also has a background experience with the foreign Ag service and USDA United Sorghum Checkoff program, and she has served as CEO of Kansas Wheat. Welcome, Dusti.
00:01:35
Thank you, Aaron.
00:01:36
So, Heartland Plant Innovations, I think a lot of people who listen to this podcast know that it's an advanced plant science company located at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center here in Manhattan on K State's campus. But I think we should have a discussion about exactly what Heartland Plant Innovations does, what they're created for, and maybe your kind of vision for the future of wheat breeding and advanced wheat breeding technologies. So you and I were working together at Kansas Wheat when we kind of started discussions of a company like Heartland Plant Innovations. And there's a whole long story behind that. But basically, what was the genesis of Heartland Plant Innovations?
00:01:78
So back in the mid to early 2000s, we were seeing the need for wheat specifically to be able to take advantage of some innovative technologies. And so the reason why Heartland Plant Innovations was created was to do that, was to try to bring some synergies around the wheat industry, bringing together the public and private sectors engaged in research, and really try to advance wheat innovation from the research perspective all the way to the end marketplace. So we were really focused on bringing some synergies around wheat research and trying to work together with all facets of the wheat industry.
00:02:128
I know you hit the road a lot at that point in time. You were making the trips to visit some companies. And what was your message to those folks?
00:02:136
Yes, we visited a lot of people around the state and around the nation who had programs in wheat. And so we were just trying to bring the message know we needed to make sure that wheat stayed relevant in the United States compared to other crops. We really wanted to let them know that the producers, specifically in Kansas and hard red winter producers, were really interested in bringing innovations and bringing technology to the forefront with wheat, because at the time, we were losing a little ground on technology to other crops. And so that was really what our message was, is that technology innovation and wheat was important. And we were able to find a core group of industry members who joined the effort with producers with the universities in Kansas to start building HPI.
00:03:194
I should tell folks this was kind of in the 2008 2010 time frame and as you mentioned there, the focus in seed technology, especially GMo technology, was all about corn and soybeans. And you're right, we did see that lack of attention to wheat. So this was kind of a way of telling the industry we were ready to move forward, not necessarily with GMO wheat, but there are some other techniques. So that evolved, and we didn't have the Kansas Wheat Innovation center at that point in time. So how do you create a new company like this? Get the facilities, get everything in place, the talent, the equipment. How did that work?
00:04:232
Well, it took a lot of work, and it took a lot of work by a number of people. First of all, the producers representing Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, the staff at that time, we worked very closely with Kansas State University. We were working with the University of Kansas and those, particularly private industry members that we visited. And we just all came together and tried to build a vision around what it would take to bring biotechnology in wheat. And biotechnology is a broad term. It doesn't mean transgenic or gmo, but it means all of the innovative tools that can be used to enhance wheat. So we wanted to bring that broad spectrum of biotechnology to wheat, and it started with communication. At that time, there was very little communication between the public and private sectors and wheat breeding. Everybody was doing their own thing. And so it started with communication and bringing everybody to the same table to talk about what our common interests were. And there were a lot in wheat at that time. And so once we did that, then it started falling into place. We built a business plan for HPI. The business. And then HPI was a little bit of a spark that brought this innovation center that we're so fortunate to be in. And as you well know, that took a lot more work in order to get the building that we're sitting in now together and here. And the funds raised and the building actually built.
00:06:337
Yeah, I think the farmers, the folks who paid the check off through the wheat commission leadership, noticed that there were some tools, as you mentioned, that the breeding program at Kansas State University didn't have access. So part of the creation of this business was to provide access to services like doubled haploids, which I think is fair to say is the main tool the business was built around. So our farmers wanted K state to have access to the double haploids. But it's not that simple. Right? There's a lot involved with double haploid creation. And then how do you make a business like that? Cash flow. So ultimately, what became of that?
00:06:378
Yes. So our double haploid production system for wheat is our core business. And so that's what brings the revenue in for HPI. One of the pillars that brings revenue in for HPI. And so our business model is really three tiered. So you have our double haploid production system. You also have some other advanced plant breeding tools, like genotyping, marker assisted selection. But we also have expanded into two other pillars, one being traditional breeding and just supporting the breeding programs in the United States, as well as some proprietary projects. So all of these three combined really helped us build the HPI business model. And so none of this is done with just HPI alone. So every piece, every pillar has a partnership attached to it. So whether it's the breeding programs, public or private, that are accessing our double haploid production system, whether you combine that with some traditional breeding tools that we have capabilities of providing, or if it's working with a university or a private company in addressing a particular need that they have or an end market that they want to pursue, we work with them, with their proprietary material to help them accomplish a goal or address a problem. And so it's these three pillars that really have built HPI into what it is today. And again, all of it has collaboration built into it, whether it be those private companies, the universities that we work with. It's all collaborative. And obviously, the producers help support that work, whether it be at the university level with public research, or if they access some of the private varieties. The producers are really the foundation for all of this. And so everything that we do is driven toward making a better opportunity for those producers to have better varieties to be able to improve their bottom line.
00:09:518
So some of these services, specifically double haploid, do take specific facilities, have to have growth rooms and laboratory space and greenhouses, which we did not have prior to the Kansas Wheat Innovation center. So what was the discovery process there? I mean, you found a home in Throckmorton Hall and K-State's campus.
00:09:537
Right. The double haploid process takes about a year to produce from start to finish. And so it's a very detailed technique, and there's been a lot of work gone into exactly how to do that for wheat, and you have to follow very specific protocols and procedures in order for that to be successful and for us to eventually deliver a very high quality double haploid line back to the breeders. So, with that said, it takes really state of the art facilities in order to do that to the best of our ability. That's not where we started. We started in piecing together where we outsourced a building here in the Manhattan community to help do some of the steps involved. We started at Throckmorton hall at K-State, utilized their greenhouses until the producer community came together and built all of those facilities that we needed in one place. So from lab space to growth rooms to greenhouse space, to auxiliary space, where we can house and mix soil and plant pots and harvest and thresh, all of that came together here in this innovation center, and all of our employees are here. And everything happens under the same roof versus when we started, it was under about three different roofs. So it's allowed us to be very efficient. It's allowed us to make some improvements to that process. And that is an ongoing process that we do is to try to improve each and every little segment of the process.
00:11:646
Before we dive too much into the science, we should clear up the uniqueness of Heartland Plant Innovations. And without getting too much in the weeds, there was the Kansas Bioscience authority involved with it. And HPI is a for-profit company. Why is that?
00:11:662
Well, we wanted to make sure that HPI had the ability to be a long-term, sustainable, healthy business. So when there was five innovation centers that were in the conversation with the bioscience authority, we were the only ones who chose the for profit model. All those others chose the not for profit model, and we're the only one that's still in existence today. So we wanted to make sure that we had a business model that would make sure that we were around and we were sustainable and we were healthy for the long term. And the for profit model, I believe I'm here to say that it convinced some partners to come on board, where I think if we chose the not for profit model, maybe we would have missed out on some of those partners.
00:12:716
And HPI is a privately held shareholder company, the majority of that being owned by farmers?
00:12:722
It is, yes. Kansas farmers, through their organizations here in the state, do have majority ownership, and then the rest of the ownership is built by private companies, universities. We have some individual members still that are shareholders, and so it's a good partnership.
00:12:742
You mentioned a menu of the services you offered, and they're all very technical, above my pay grade, so to speak. Give us a snapshot of what those different tools are and what they do to advance the cause of weep breeding.
00:13:755
Okay. Starting with our double haploid process. I mentioned it. It takes a year to do. So basically, what you're doing is you're taking common wheat. That's a hexaploid wheat and you're making a double haploid out of it. So what we're doing is we're basically taking only the genetic material from one of the parents, the female parent, and we're keeping those genetics and rebuilding that plant to where it can be a mature seed producing plant. And so there's a lot of steps in the way. And of course, we deal mostly with winter wheat, although we do other classes as wheat as well. So we have two vernalization periods in the whole year's process, and we're basically rescuing a very tender, very delicate haploid embryo and culturing it and taking care of it until it becomes a viable seedling. Then we double its chromosomes through a process that we've created and that we've refined here at HPI. And that doubling process then creates a double haploid plant. So when those seeds go back to the breeding program, then those breeders know exactly the genetic material that's in that plant. And so when they take it to the field and they grow it and they start evaluating it, it's phenotype, they know its genotype, then they can make better decisions, and they can either advance that line quickly through their program, or they can make a decision that they need to do more crossing with it. So the DH process is a tool that allows a better quality line to go through the process, and breeders can advance it quickly and they can make better decisions based on that very pure genetic line that we provide to them.
00:15:881
It's generally a shortcut of a known quantity or quality that you have. So it takes normally a decade or longer to create a new weed variety. D edges would do what to that?
00:15:893
It could cut it in half. Depending on the particular line that the breeder is interested in and the stage at which we produce the double haploid, it could really cut the program time in half from the time that that first cross is made until they're releasing it for a commercial variety.
00:15:915
So how many of those can HPI make a year, and where are your customers from?
00:15:920
So we have capabilities to do about 20,000 dhs a year. We have some room to grow from where we are currently, but our customers are all over the United States. We do have some international customers. The ability to ship wheat seeds across international borders is getting more difficult. So we've seen the international customers decrease slightly. But we service wheat breeders from coast to coast, from east to west to north to south. And so any company or university or public entity that has a crop improvement program and wheat breeding programs, we can service their needs provide DHS and any of our other services that we provide.
00:16:970
They really found kind of a niche business. A lot of other public breeding programs, even government programs that didn't have that DH capacity is kind of what HPI provides.
00:16:979
That's correct. And we're unique in the fact that we provide this service for anybody who needs it, and so we don't collect any intellectual property on it. So some of the other DH programs in the United States are with private companies, and so they do this service on their own. Propriety, germ plasm. But we'll do it for anyone. We do it on a fee for service basis, and so people can send us their wheat lines and we'll produce DHS for them.
00:17:1010
So that really accomplished the goal, I guess, of our leadership to get that DH service to Kansas State University. But making it available to everybody else kind of makes the business.
00:17:1020
Yes, yes. We definitely have accomplished that vision of those know, even know. It's taken a little time to get it in operation and to actually get DHS in the breeding programs. Over the last couple of years, we've seen the first seeds that have gone through our program. They've been released to producers, and so they've been very good, healthy varieties that have proven to be profitable for producers.
00:18:1052
So you offer a couple of other laboratory based, I guess, services that are maybe as hands on as DHS, but just as important. What are a couple of those?
00:18:1062
Right. We do genotyping services. So if anybody's interested in doing some gbs or genotype by sequencing, we can prepare those libraries, do the genotyping on them, and then send them off for sequencing. We also can do some marker assisted selection work, and then any breeding type project that can be done in growth rooms or greenhouses, we can provide those services. So we have breeders on staff. And so whether it's single seed descent, whether it's DHS, whether it's just a traditional crossing block or developing a population of sorts, those things can be done here at HPI.
00:18:1107
Tell us more about your employees. How many do you have? What are their expertise? What their specialties?
00:19:1114
We're very fortunate to have a very skilled and diverse set of employees. We have seven full time staff, and they're from all over the world, and they each bring their unique set of expertise to HPI. So we do have staff that have been trained in breeding programs, in agronomy. We have some lab focused individuals who have been trained in molecular biology, and so they have some great skills for the lab. And then we have employees that have general botany degrees that do very, very well in terms of plant management and disease management and bring that just good quality care for plants. We also have staff that have gone through a specific biotechnology program here at Manhattan Area Technical College. So they have some really good hands-on biotech expertise. So we have the necessary tools to run this business successfully.
00:20:1187
I know you've worked with some part-time students. Really a good learning environment for them.
00:20:1191
Also typically have two to three part time students that we employ here at HPI. Some just want a part-time job, and they get exposed to harvesting and threshing and proper care of plants, and some who are pursuing their agricultural degree. And this is a really good hands-on experience for them. That's really relative to their degree. And so it's nice to have a good relationship and a university next door that we have this great pool of applicants that we can utilize.
00:20:1228
So what's the vision for HPI beyond the fee for service type offerings? You talked about collaborations on genetics and variety development.
00:21:1238
So one of the things that we've done over the last couple of years, and it's the area that I think has the most growth, is in some of our proprietary projects and partnerships. We've created some joint type projects where when HPI brings expertise to the project, we maintain some ownership to that. And so I think that that area is an area of growth where companies are really looking to outsource some things, and that gives HPI the potential to own some ip. But we also are developing more and more collaborations with companies who have germ plasm or they need access to germ plasm. And so that puts HPI in a position where we can connect some dots with private industry, to k state with some germ plasm, and we can bring bigger collaborations together. So we have a project currently with Kansas State University and another private Kansas company where we're really trying to solve problems. And so we're trying to bring the expertise together from research, advanced plant breeding to traditional breeding, all the way to the end user. And so that's the aspect that the Kansas company provides, is some logistics and some management and some connection to end users. And we're trying to pull together the supply chain and a number of these collaborations. And so if there's an opportunity in the marketplace, whether it be a specialty attribute or it could even be a specialty grain, then we're trying to quantify what that added value could be and build some collaborations around that. So some high value in use focused projects. And I believe that's where HPI has expertise is. We have the ability to bridge some of these players together and do so in a way that makes it a win win for everyone.
00:23:1373
I am always amazed by the collaborations and relationships leveraged by having the Kansas Suite Innovation center and Heartland plan innovations here. Specifically, more about the collaboration with k state. It's important to people to know that HPI is not a competitor with Kansas State University or other breeding programs out there. It's mostly complementary, what you do with those programs.
00:23:1395
Absolutely. And I would say probably in the very beginning of when HPI was created, there were some suspicions or some attitudes that thought we were trying to compete. We're not trying to compete. We're trying to give them some added leverage. And not everybody has the amount of resources that they need or want to do everything they want to do. And so we're trying to give everybody some more bandwidth, basically. And so we have a great relationship with the wheat breeders at Kansas State University. They're our largest customer here. And so we work with them, we talk with them on a daily basis, and whatever that they need, whenever they don't have the capabilities of doing, or perhaps they're out of time doing it, then they know that they can come to HPI and we can help them. And so we don't compete with anybody. I mean, we're unique enough that I don't know that there is another entity that I can think of that has the capabilities and does what we do. We're not a wheat breeding company. We don't have our own proprietary genetics, and so we just use our services and our skills to help those that do. So we're very complementary, and we want to work with everyone in a complementary fashion.
00:25:1480
Wheat is not easy. You mentioned wheat is a hexapoid bred wheat, six sets of seven chromosomes. The wheat genome is five times larger than the human genome. Makes it complicated, but gives it a lot of potential at the same time. What are you most excited, from your perspective with HPI, on what that potential of wheat is in the future?
00:25:1500
I really don't believe that we have tapped the genetic potential of wheat. We're just now getting to the point where we've mapped the wheat genome, and there's still so much in there that I think that we need to help discover, and that takes time. It takes resources, it takes people, especially when you. Wheat's main use is food use. And so there are so many dense nutrients within the wheat plant that I think we're just on the very cusp of being able to identify what those are and use them to the best intent for nutrition. And so I think there's a lot of opportunity out there just continuing to uncover what exactly is in that wheat plant. And then we also have the ability through all of wheat's wild relatives to bring in some additional attributes, whether it be agronomic traits. And so I think we're just going to start seeing wheat continue to improve and continue to explain its value.
00:26:1578
And what's your message to Kansas wheat farmers and beyond about their investment of HPI? I mean, we've seen results, right? There are DH lines that were created at HPI that have become varieties.
00:27:1591
Well, I think HPI really is kind of a secret. I mean, not everybody knows that we exist, but I would just tell producers that investment in wheat research is very critical to us continuing to accomplish those goals and continuing to uncover just the vast benefits that wheat has to offer. And so I know it takes a long time. And investment in wheat research is the long game. It's not the short game. I would just say continuing to support their university and their checkoff because it's those wheat research dollars that are really going to make an impact. And so we just need to keep doing what we're doing, but also looking at new opportunities, new technologies, and that's what we're here to do at HPI.
00:27:1646
Great, Dusti, thanks for joining us and sharing some very good insight on what Heartland plan Innovations is all about.
00:28:1652
Thank you, Aaron.
00:28:1661
My thanks to Dusti Gallagher with Heartland Plant Innovations for being my guest on this episode of the podcast. If you have questions or comments about this episode, please email us at podcast@kswheat.com. I'm Aaron Harries. Thanks for listening.