NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced it has signed an agreement to license ToolGen's CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property portfolio.
Under the terms of the agreement, South Korea-based ToolGen has granted Thermo Fisher a worldwide license for research applications of its intellectual property including the development and sale of reagents, cell lines, and animal models, as well as rights for high-throughput screening, diagnostics, and bioproduction. Thermo Fisher also has the right to grant sublicenses in each of these fields. ToolGen retains its rights in broad areas including high-throughput screening, diagnostics, bioproduction, plant biotechnology, and gene and cell therapy.
Thermo Fisher will use the technology to develop and market new CRISPR reagent kits, which will complement its transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) technique portfolio, the firm said in a statement.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"Genome editing technologies are among the most exciting innovations in the life science in recent years, truly enabling scientists to understand gene function, the underlying molecular mechanisms for cell function and disease onset and progression" Helge Bastian, VP and general manager of synthetic biology at Thermo Fisher, said in a statement.
In January, Thermo Fisher launched a collaboration with AstraZeneca based around the firm's CRISPR/Cas9 guide RNA libraries.