Horizon Discovery Licenses Gene Editing Technology From ERS Genomics

Horizon Discovery Group plc recently announced it has entered into a non-exclusive license agreement with ERS Genomics Ltd (ERS) to access intellectual property (IP) relating to the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system.

Under the terms of the agreement, Horizon has rights to use the technology, which is based on the work of Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and her colleagues, for research applications, including development and sale of research tools, kits, and reagents, performance of research services, creation of genetically modified disease model cell lines, development and production of reference standard material for molecular diagnostics, and for internal target identification and validation research efforts.

The acquisition of this important CRISPR IP is in line with the company’s aims outlined at the time of its IPO and further strengthens Horizon’s long-term position in the market for this cutting-edge gene editing technology. Access to a broader CRISPR IP portfolio will allow the technology to be deployed extensively across Horizon’s products, services, and leveraged R&D and further enhance the attractiveness of the Horizon GENESIS offering to customers.

“Horizon Discovery’s ambition is to be the market leader in CRISPR technology, and by expanding our portfolio of intellectual property rights in this area, we aim to ensure that our customers, both now and in the future, will have unencumbered access to this innovative new gene editing technology,” said Dr. Darrin Disley, Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Discovery Group. “We believe that the ERS Genomics IP, based on the work of Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and her colleagues, is particularly important, and so we are very pleased to be able to add it to our expanding portfolio of patent rights in this area on behalf of our customers.”

Horizon is a revenue-generating life science company supplying research tools to organizations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Horizon has a diverse and international customer base approaching 800 organizations, including major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies as well as leading academic research centers. For more information, visit www.horizondiscovery.com.

CRISPR, (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a new RNA-guided gene-editing platform that makes use of a bacterially derived protein (Cas9) and a synthetic guide RNA (gRNA) to introduce a break at a specific location within the genome. While bacterial Cas9 is capable of introducing double strand breaks similar to Zinc Finger Nucleases, a modified version introduces only single strand “nicks” to the DNA, which can be exploited to introduce subtle genetic changes while avoiding off-target effects common to double strand breaks. Editing is achieved by transfecting a cell with the Cas9 protein along with a specially designed gRNA that directs the cut through hybridization with its matching genomic sequence. The use of CRISPR has been described in several peer-reviewed publications in recent years. Horizon Discovery is deploying the platform alone and in combination with rAAV in its contract research services and cell line products business units.