2Blades2Blades continues broad license access to its award-winning Transcription Activator Like (TALEN) technology for applications in advancing research in genome editing.
2Blades announced today the completion of a non-exclusive license agreement with NAPIGEN for access to 2Blades’ TALEN technology for applications in organellar genome editing. The editing of plant mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes opens new opportunities for altering traits in crop plants that have not yet been easily targeted by conventional methods (e.g., CRISR/cas9), and which have significant implications for improved crop nutrition, growth, and yield.
“We’re pleased to complete a license with NAPIGEN to advance their efforts to edit plant organelles. TALENs remain an important and accessible gene editing platform in plants for developing more productive crops,” stated Diana Horvath, President of 2Blades.
The TALEN technology is a set of programmable, targeted genome modifying tools based on novel, sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. DNA specificity can be designed quickly and easily, to recognize virtually any sequence of interest and to target multiple types of DNA modifications – from editing with TALENs, to up and down regulation of gene expression, and chromatin modification. Since its discovery in 2009, the use of the TAL code technology in plants has enhanced the efficiency and precision of editing numerous traits in a range of crops.
“Research at NAPIGEN uses both the latest biotech technology and our own proprietary innovations to edit genes in plant mitochondria and chloroplasts. Our goal is to produce crop plants with increased yield to benefit both agriculture and our environment by increasing our food security and reducing the need for deforestation to create new farmland. We have previously shown the use of CRISPR to gene edit mitochondria in yeast and chloroplasts in algae. We are excited to add TALEN technology to our gene editing toolbox,” stated Hajime Sakai, CEO and Co-Founder of NAPIGEN.
The TALEN technology was discovered by Ulla Bonas, Jens Boch, Thomas Lahaye, and Sebastian Schornack at Martin-Luther University in Halle, Germany. 2Blades holds exclusive rights for commercial uses of the technology in plants and pioneered accessible gene editing licensing terms for all.
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ABOUT 2BLADES
2Blades is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to the discovery, advancement, and delivery of environmentally responsible, long-lasting solutions to crop disease by merging cutting-edge science discovery with delivery in the field. 2Blades establishes and manages development programs addressing significant unsolved crop disease problems in collaboration with leading research institutions around the world and manages a portfolio of specific traits and enabling technologies that it implements in its own programs and out-licenses for broad use. 2Blades is headquartered in Evanston, IL, with research labs in Norwich, UK and St. Paul, MN, and offices in Chapel Hill, NC and Zurich, Switzerland.
ABOUT NAPIGEN
NAPIGEN is a biotechnology company that addresses novel genome engineering of various organisms such as plants, microbes, and animals. NAPIGEN’s technology targets two special cellular organelles, mitochondria and chloroplasts, that harbor their own DNA. Both organelles are important to create energy for cells to grow and to produce various biochemical molecules key to specific pathways and functions. NAPIGEN’s technology has broad application areas, ranging from agriculture to industrial biotechnology to animal and human healthcare. NAPIGEN’s mission is to harness the potential of organelles to make society a better place to live.