NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Two Blades Foundation and Monsanto today announced an expansion of their agreement to provide Monsanto additional TAL Code technologies.
Details about the expansion of the companies' original deal, including financial terms, were not disclosed. Diana Horvath, chief operating officer for the foundation, said in an e-mail that further details "aren't available at this time."
The TAL Code technology was discovered by researchers at Martin-Luther University in Halle, Germany and is based on novel sequence-specific DNA binding proteins that may be designed for the recognition of almost any sequence of interest. Two Blades has the exclusive rights for commercial use of the technology in plants.
Improvements made by Monsanto to the technology will be granted back to the foundation for its programs in subsistence crops, said Two Blades, which is based in Evanston, Ill., and supports the development of durable disease resistance in crop plants.