NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sangamo BioSciences has expanded a research and license agreement with Genentech to focus its zinc finger technology on additional targets for production cell lines.
Sangamo’s technology uses naturally occurring transcription factors, called ZFPs, that bind to DNA to regulate gene expression.
Sangamo said the ZFPs engineer ZFNs, which contain a nuclease component that can induce modification of a target gene of interest. Company CEO Edward Lanphier said the firm’s technology offers a “highly specific method to efficiently alter genes in eukaryotic cells.”
Sangamo had a previous agreement with Genentech to design and engineer additional ZFNs that target genes that Genentech is interested in using to improve pharmaceutical production in mammalian cells.