Cellectis bioresearch, the French genome customization specialist and a commercial subsidiary of Cellectis, and Lonza, a world leader in biotechnology production, have entered into an agreement for the development and commercialization of a bioengineered cell line.

Cellectis bioresearch will use its meganucleases to deactivate the glutamine synthetase (GS) in CHOK1SV, Lonza's proprietary host cell line. Cellectis bioresearch specializes in the commercialization of genome customization tools using meganucleases. Meganucleases are molecular scissors that can be directed to a single highly specific site in the genome of a cell, thereby allowing a wide range of precise genome modifications, including targeted gene integration, gene knock-out as well as modulation of gene function.

"Lonza's ability to master production of the highest quality cell lines makes the company a perfect partner for the application of our meganuclease technology," said Marc Le Bozec, CEO of Cellectis bioresearch. "The production of recombinant proteins is a key area where our technology is really bringing a real benefit to the biomanufacturing industry. It is an example of a new application of meganucleases, which are very efficient at knocking out specific genes."

John Birch, CSO of Lonza Biopharmaceuticals, added, "Lonza is delighted to work with Cellectis bioresearch. This collaboration makes sense and will enhance our long-standing and successful GS technology."

Lonza's proprietary technology, the GS System, uses selection via glutamine metabolism to rapidly generate high-yielding and stable producing cell lines. Hundreds of cell lines using the GS System have already been created to generate therapeutic proteins for clinical trials and in-market supply. Removal of the cell-based GS activity will enable further improvements to be made to the selection process for creating highly productive recombinant cell lines.