Patent protection for TAL effector technology

Life Technologies has announced the issuance of a patent covering nucleic acids encoding transcription activator-like effector nuclease fusion proteins (TALENS) and the formal launch of an associated sublicensing program. The technology has broad utility in the pharmaceutical, synthetic biology and plant sciences industries for creating genetically modified cell lines, animals and plants, and is being actively explored for potential uses in human gene therapy.

Life Technologies has exclusive rights to US Patent No. 8,420,782 B2 ‘Modular DNA-Binding Domains and Methods of Use’, issued on 16 April - a fundamental intellectual property for all applications of TAL effectors in fields outside commercial use in plants. The company markets TALENS under the brand name GeneArt Precision TAL Technology. TAL effectors bind to specific DNA sequences with higher precision than zinc finger binding proteins and can be used to deliver a variety of functional elements to activate or repress gene expression or cut and insert DNA.

“The GeneArt Precision TAL technology is being employed in numerous commercial R&D applications, including identification of new pharmaceutical compounds, disease modelling and bioproduction technology,” said Nathan Wood, general manager and vice president of synthetic biology at Life Technologies. “Their ability to bind to DNA with unprecedented precision and reliability makes TAL effectors invaluable to researchers looking to edit genomes and control gene activity.”

The current patent is based on work conducted at Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg. The Two Blades Foundation, a US-based charitable organisation, owns exclusive rights to commercial applications in plants and is committed to making TAL technology broadly available through licensing.

“Patent protection brings increased assurance to our industrial customers with regard to bringing new products to market,” said Wood, “and for our agriculture customers, through our strong partnership with Two Blades, a path forward in commercialising their R&D efforts.”

Among Life Technologies’ first sublicensees of TAL technology are ToolGen, which is using the technology to generate transgenic animal models and cell lines; and Cellular Dynamics International, which is applying TAL effectors to introduce or correct disease-associated mutations in induced pluripotent stem cell lines.