NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals said today that it has expanded its license for DNA transposon technology to cover nearly all commercial applications, including as a tool for drug and biomarker discovery.
The intellectual property for the transposon technology, called piggyBac, is jointly owned by the University of Notre Dame, the University of Florida, and the US Department of Agriculture.
As part of the deal, Transposagen will be responsible for distribution of piggyBac to researchers working in academia and other non-profit institutes, and will also control commercial sublicenses.
"We will now be able to provide piggyBac to pharmaceutical companies as a novel tool for drug and biomarker discovery," Eric Ostertag, CEO of Transposagen, said in a statement.
Transposagen, based in Lexington, Ky., said that it has been using the piggyBac technology to create its TKO Knockout rat models, which have a single gene disruption and mimic human disease states.