Cellectis bioresearch, the genome customization specialist and a commercial subsidiary of Cellectis and Recombinetics, a specialist in biogenetics, announced that they have entered a development and license agreement on the creation of transgenic large livestock.
Recombinetics creates, in accordance with biosafety and animal well-being requirements, large livestock for agricultural, biomedical and bioproduction applications. Following this agreement, Recombinetics will use Cellectis bioresearch’s engineered nucleases to conceive animals with improved genetic features.
The agreement, which will run for 3 years, is exclusive for swine, cattle and sheep and non-exclusive for goat. It broadens the field of applications for the genome customization tools designed and produced by Cellectis bioresearch, emphasizing the versatility of its nucleases.
“We have been amazed by the enthusiasm of the Recombinetics management team and the company’s robust results in the genetic engineering of large livestock,” said Marc Le Bozec, CEO of Cellectis bioresearch. “Applying our technologies in this new field of application should enable Recombinetics to accelerate its development on this promising market.”
“This license enables us to apply the full potential of precision genetics to a variety of livestock applications. In agriculture we will focus on the acceleration of breeding programmes by rapid allele introgression. In the biomedical space we will emphasize the addition of new characteristics to animals used in therapeutic development,” said Scott Fahrenkrug, CEO of Recombinetics.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cellectis bioresearch is eligible to sales-based milestones of up to $ 50M and to royalties on the sales generated by the products developed during this collaboration.
Cellectis improves life by applying its genome engineering expertise to a broad range of applications, including agriculture, bioresearch and human therapeutics.