Cellectis, the global genome engineering specialist, has recieved the key patent from US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The key patent is a third US patent (US 8,450,471) directed to TAL-effector nucleases.

This third patent follows the issuance on May, 14 2013 of two previous patents (US 8,440,431 and US 8,440,432) directed to TAL-effector nuclease technology. This third issued patent is more particularly drawn to the polynucleotides encoding the TAL-effector nuclease, per se. i.e. the reagent molecules that are used to specifically cut the DNA at desired locations in the genome of living cells.

These issued patents are part of a patent portfolio owned by the Regents of the University of Minnesota and Iowa State University Research Foundation and licensed exclusively to Cellectis as per a license agreement of January 2011.

The inventors of the three patents are Pr. Daniel Voytas, from the University of Minnesota who is also acting as chief scientific officer of Cellectis plant sciences in New Brighton (MN), Pr. Adam Bogdanove formerly of Iowa State University and currently of Cornell University Dr Feng Zhang, who is now chief operating officer of Cellectis plant sciences.

Cellectis was the first company to bring TAL-effector nucleases to the marketplace as early as 2011, under the trademark TALEN.

Cellectis provides its customers TALEN product under license of these patents to easily achieve any genome engineering projects. Cellectis designs efficient solutions to edit any gene in any cell type in 4 weeks: human, animal, algae, plant, as well as viral and bacterial DNA. TALEN product is an efficient synthetic biology tool allowing applications in diverse domains ranging from agriculture to therapy.

TALEN products are commercialized through Cellectis bioresearch, the commercial subsidiary of Cellectis.