Horizon Discovery Signs Major Agreements; Launches GENASSIST Line of Kits & Reagents

Horizon Discovery recently announced it has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Haplogen GmbH, with immediate effect. Under the terms of the agreement, customers can now access, directly from Horizon, Haplogen’s Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection of isogenic human cell lines deficient for the expression of single genes. This agreement represents the first time Horizon will be distributing another company’s products, recognizing Horizon’s past success in penetrating the global model cell lines market.

Haploid cellular models offer a biologically relevant system for in vitro genetic analyses of molecular, cellular, and developmental events in various cell lineages. Haplogen’s Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection is the largest haploid cell line bank available, and comprises over 9,400 mutant clones, affecting over 3,700 human genes and an additional 1,600 inducible clones covering 1,100 genes. For-profit customers will be able to access the cell-line bank by signing an annual limited-use label license, whilst academic customers will be able to access an unlimited term license and will receive a greater than 90% discount.

“Horizon’s mission is to give scientists access to high-value products and services that address their research needs,” commented Dr. Darrin Disley, CEO, Horizon. “The addition of the Haplogen cell line products to our offering supports our growth strategy and is highly complementary to our current product portfolio, including our X-MAN range of diploid isogenic cell lines. We anticipate announcing further partnerships in the future as we continue to broaden our product offering to meet the needs of our customers.”

“We are delighted that a company of Horizon’s reputation and commercial reach is recognizing the potential of our Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection. This marketing and distribution agreement will help make our products accessible to a much broader range of customers active in the translational genomics field,” added Dr. Georg Casari, CEO, Haplogen.

Horizon Discovery also announced it has signed a supply and distribution agreement with Sirion Biotech GmbH. Under the terms of this agreement, Horizon’s customers can now access Sirion’s highly efficient RNAiONE custom shRNA development services, as well as Sirion’s off-the-shelf validated shRNA and cDNA over-expression reagents. Through this partnership, Horizon now offers a broad spectrum of gene modulation technologies ranging from stable shRNA knockdown and cDNA overexpression systems to the ability to edit endogenous genes via rAAV, ZFN, and CRISPR platforms.

Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) has become a staple of the research community for silencing genes, but identifying the most effective shRNA sequence to provide the greatest level of gene suppression often presents a problem. Sirion’s RNAiONE platform is a validation system that reliably produces shRNAs with a gene-silencing efficiency often greater than 90%.

The platform is being made available through Horizon as a custom service that delivers a shRNA sequence, transduction-ready lentivirus, or a treated knock-down cell pool. Inducible knock-down and over-expression systems are also available, offering a valuable tool for functional gene analysis and to help deal with the adaptive capacity of cells. Horizon will also be making available over 125 off-the-shelf RNAiONE-validated shRNAs and over 70 cDNA overexpression constructs. These will be available as transduction ready lentivirus particles or as plasmids.

“Gene over-expression and knockdown studies are important to both basic and preclinical research, helping to determine the specific roles of genes and potentially leading to the discovery of novel targets for new drugs,” said Dr. Jon Moore, VP, Oncology, Horizon Discovery. “Issues surrounding knock-down efficiency and the associated phenotypic variation have led to inconsistent results. The high silencing efficiency ensured by RNAiONE gives researchers confidence in their functional genomics investigations.”

“Horizon is well respected in the industry as a leading translational genomics company. It is a natural step forward to complement Horizon’s drug discovery services and products with Sirion Biotech’s RNAiONE technology, and I am confident that this partnership will provide researchers with optimal integrated solutions for translational genomics. We are happy that this agreement with Horizon will enable us to broadcast our technology to a larger audience,” added Christian Thirion, Managing Director of Sirion Biotech.

Lastly, Horizon Discovery announced it has launched the first products and services from its new GENASSIST range of gene editing kits and reagents that enable easier, robust implementation of CRISPR and rAAV gene editing experiments.

The current GENASSIST offering comprises both off-the-shelf reagents for using CRISPR editing technology and a unique kit combination of these reagents to allow customers to generate their own CRISPR-ready cell lines that constitutively express Cas9-nickase. Using such cell lines provides a quick start for customers, enabling them to make further modifications to the cell line more efficiently than if they were starting fresh each time. Horizon is also launching a new service for the design, manufacture, and most importantly, validation of CRISPR RNA guides, in order to maximize the likelihood that gene editing will occur as expected.

“The launch of our first CRISPR kits mark the next stage in Horizon establishing itself as the leader in the gene editing field. Recent advances in gene editing technology, with techniques, such as rAAV, ZFN, and CRISPR, have had a revolutionary effect on translational genomics. Horizon’s goal is to make these developments accessible to the wider scientific audience, through contract manufacturing, do-it-yourself products, and high-end technical support services. As the only company who can offer all of these techniques singularly or in combination, we can ensure that researchers, on their own or with our advice, can make an informed choice of which technology or combination of technologies to deploy to gain the correct answer to the biological question being asked,” said Dr. Disley.

“CRISPR and Cas9 technology is making gene editing broadly accessible to researchers,” said Eric Rhodes, Horizon’s VP R&D and CTO. “Our new GENASSIST kits, combined with access to rAAV, ZFN, and CRISPR technologies, give researchers an invaluable suite of tools to determine the function of endogenous gene alterations and their effect on disease and therapeutic responses. We’re also utilizing all three technologies within Horizon to expand on our collection of over 550 X-MAN genetically defined cell lines and endogenous pathway reporter cell-based assay kits.”

Horizon plans to launch additional products and services in the near future as part of GENASSIST to further enable researchers working in the gene editing field.

Horizon Discovery Limited is a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Using GENESIS, Horizon is able to alter almost any endogenous gene sequence of a human or mammalian cell-line quickly, reliably, and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes.

Horizon has applied GENESIS to create over 550 X-MAN cell lines, the world’s first source of genetically defined and patient-relevant human cell lines, accurately modeling the disease-causing mutations found in cancer patients. These “patients-in-a-test-tube” are being used by academic and industry leaders to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, which may lead to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently available and future drug treatments. This enables the design of shorter, more focused, and less-expensive clinical trials, ultimately providing the tools to identify the right drugs for the right patients based upon the unique genetic mutations that define their disease.

In addition to the X-MAN cell lines, Horizon provides GENESIS, X-MAN and GENASSIST-derived products and services, with industrial applications in: biopharmaceutical process optimization; clinical diagnostic development; drug discovery and development; and the provision of reference standards for genomic-based clinical research platforms. For more information, visit www.horizondiscovery.com.