St. Louis, Missouri, USA
September 24, 2013
SAGE Labs, Inc., a leading provider of in vivo products, services and technologies in the field of genome engineering, today announced that it has entered into a partnership and licensing agreement with Caribou Biosciences, Inc. (Caribou Bio) for key intellectual property related to the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system. This agreement will allow SAGE Labs to offer researchers an expanded portfolio of animal models and services.
Under the agreement, SAGE Labs will gain exclusive rights to Caribou Bio's intellectual property to produce and sell genetically engineered rats, and will gain non-exclusive rights to the same for mouse and rabbit models. The Cas9 system will complement SAGE’s Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology, allowing SAGE to offer its customers access to novel and more complex animal models of human disease, as well as reduced turnaround times for its custom model creation service, SAGEspeed®.
“SAGE Labs is the technology leader in next-generation research models. As such, it is important to have access to the key technologies needed to carry out complex genetic engineering projects,” commented Dr. David Smoller, CEO of SAGE Labs. “The Cas9 technology is the most efficient and robust system available for targeted genome editing. Using Cas9 as a complement to our ZFN technology will allow our customers to access animal models that offer the most translational value for their research.”
The Cas9 genome engineering technology is an RNA-based gene editing system developed based on published work undertaken by the lab of Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and co-founder of Caribou Bio.
“We believe that the Cas9 system will become very important in the creation of new models of human disease, both in vitro and in vivo,” commented Dr. Rachel Haurwitz, CEO of Caribou Bio. “SAGE Labs' track record as a market leader in commercializing in vivo technologies will enable them to use Cas9-based engineering to bring innovative, high quality engineered research animal models to the marketplace.”
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. Please see www.sageresearchlabs.com for further details.
About Sage Labs
SAGE® Labs is a world-class provider of next-generation research models; including genetically engineered mouse, rat, and rabbit models, and transgenic support services. Using proprietary platform technologies, such as Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) and the CRISPR/cas9 system for genome engineering, SAGE produces complex in vivo research models in half the time as models produced using conventional Embryonic Stem Cell technologies. For more information, visit http://www.sageresearchlabs.com.
About Caribou Bio
Caribou Bio specializes in the research and development of tools and technologies for cellular engineering and analysis. Caribou Bio’s technologies are based on the unique capabilities of Cas enzymes from the CRISPR prokaryotic immune system. Caribou Bio’s lead technology is the Cas9 enzyme, a highly efficient and easy to use genome editing platform that does not require unique protein development. Cas9-based editing permits multiplex genome engineering by targeting multiple genomic sites in a single experimental step. Caribou Bio’s research tools and technologies will provide transformative capabilities to basic and applied research and development in the drug development, agricultural biotechnology, and industrial biosciences fields.
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