Monsanto

Pairwise, an agricultural startup using gene editing to address global food challenges, was cofounded by Feng Zhang, David Liu, and Keith Joung.

The system uses synthetic probes that bind to molecules of interest and then pass through solid-state nanopores, enabling detection of the target molecules.

The agricultural company said it will use the licensed technology to develop improved and sustainable crops.

Under the terms of the deals, Illumina and Monsanto will have access to NRGene's genome assembly and analysis technologies for ag-bio research projects.

CRISPR/Cpf1 can serve as an alternative or even complementary genome editing technology to CRISPR/Cas9, which Monsanto has also licensed from the Broad.

The technology is based on engineered zinc finger DNA-binding proteins, which bind to specific functional domains to create transcription factors capable of activating or repressing target genes.