Computomics GmbH & Co. KG is a young spin-off of the University of Tübingen. Managing Directors and co-founders Dr. Sebastian Schultheiss and Dr. Tobias Dezulian analyse the genomes of seeds on behalf of seed manufacturers with a view to, for example, gathering information about resistance to drought or pests. With their team, they have developed tools that enable them to effectively evaluate raw data from DNA screenings.

Company founders Dr. Sebastian Schultheiss and Dr. Tobias Dezulian may well know most of their potential customers personally. After all, less than 20 seed manufacturers worldwide work in the field of genomic crop research. The two start-up entrepreneurs are therefore part of a small industry in which they have built up a network of contacts over many years. “Because we have been working in this area of science for many years, we are well known in the community”, explains Dr. Schultheiss (31). Like Dr. Dezulian, he studied at the University of Tübingen, where he gained a doctorate in bioinformatics, and then worked at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. He is an expert in next-generation sequencing (NGS) and next-generation DNA sequencing technology.

DNA sequencing is the decoding of DNA. However, to grasp how genes function and interact, you not only need to be able to “read” the individual DNA sequences, you also have to understand the entire “language”. With this in mind, the founders of Com-putomics have developed new methods and tools to precisely analyse and interpret the data from text sequences.

Dr. Schultheiss and Dr. Dezulian specialise in the genetic analysis of seeds such as grain, rice and maize and can provide targeted information on certain properties and abilities of genomes. “Whereas many generations of seeds and years of observation were required in the past, our customers now need only a few months with our help”. Thanks to Computomics, customers can quickly discover whether an attempt to cross certain properties of a wild crop variety with an established variety in a conventional manner has succeeded. “We make the invisible properties of the seed visible”, explains Dr. Dezulian. Cross-cultivation can be used, for example, to develop a variety of crop which is particularly resistant to drought or certain pests. Retaining “natural biodiversity is important to our customers, as it provides a wealth of beneficial properties. Gene manipulation is therefore not an issue for us at the moment. We only receive requests and orders relating to conventional seed cultivation and varieties”.

Sequencing machines usually produce several terabytes of data for these analy-ses. Knowing how important data security is to its customers, Computomics works only with company-internal server systems: “We mostly handle proprietary information about seed cultivation on behalf of seed manufacturers. That's why we only use our own servers as well as effective encryption technology.”

The success of the venture vindicates the spin-off from the University of Tübingen. Enquiries have already been received from customers around the world. After the United States, Germany is the most important location for seed manufacturers. This is why the company is based in Germany, although it is already considering opening a branch in the United States. “We feel very much at home here and receive competent support – for example, from BioRegio STERN and bwcon,” explains Dr. Schultheiss. “The know-how we need is available on our doorstep at institutes and the university. We can therefore find the right staff without too much effort on our part. This is important since we are constantly looking for highly qualified personnel for our complex tasks”. Computomics GmbH & Co. KG – currently still based on the university premises – plans to move to a larger building in 2013. The company initially plans to create ten new jobs on the new premises – after all, healthy growth is the cornerstone of Computomics' business.

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