The genome engineering specialist, Cellectis has announced the completion of a structurally important transaction concerning its subsidiary Cellectis bioresearch, which specializes in designing, developing and marketing products and services essentially for academic and biopharmaceutical industry researchers: a simplified legal structure, with Ectycell merged into Cellectis bioresearch; and a reinforced equity position, with a €3.5 million contribution subscribed for by Caisse des Dépôts.

Ectycell’s tie up with Cellectis bioresearch will enable Cellectis bioresearch to enrich and sustain its offering, synergistically combining the technologies of targeted gene editing and iPS cell derived models.

The new structure has the advantage of being more uniform with the aim of providing disruptive innovations that run the gamut from in vitro genetic diversity control for R&D to client specific turnkey solutions.

As part of this rationalization process, the Cellectis Group plans to bring together the activities of Cellectis bioresearch and Ectycell at a single production facility.

On December 30, 2013, all of Ectycell’s shares were contributed to Cellectis bioresearch, which also carried out a capital increase of €3.5 million euros in cash, fully subscribed for by Caisse des Dépôts, in accordance with the commitments made under the partnership initiated in January 2012.

Following these transactions, Cellectis now holds 75.5% of the share capital of Cellectis bioresearch, while Caisse des Dépôts holds 24.5%.

A stronger equity position was essential to reinforcing Cellectis bioresearch’s autonomy and its capacity for innovation in a competitive environment where major players based in the United States and Japan tend to hold sway.

This investment reflects the priority placed by the Caisse des Dépôts group, as a privileged partner of French state and local authorities, on helping SMEs raise capital and foster innovation. Caisse des Dépôts initiated this investment under the convention signed with the French state in 2008 to support Innovation Platforms in line with public policy on competitiveness clusters.

Founded in Paris in 1999, the Cellectis Group bases its work on highly specific DNA engineering technologies. Its application sectors are human health, agriculture and bio-energies. Cellectis was co-founded by André Choulika, its chairman and CEO, and David Sourdive, executive vice president of corporate development, and is now one of the world’s top companies in the field of genome engineering, with revenue of €21 million in 2012.

Caisse des Dépôts, together with its subsidiaries, is a French state financial institution serving as a long-term investor in support of the public interest and local economic development.