2Blades licenses TALEN technology to NAPIGEN for organelle editing

2Blades announced the completion of a non-exclusive license agreement with NAPIGEN for access to 2Blades’ Transcription Activator Like (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.