Cellectis SA, the rational genome engineering company, and Bayer BioScience NV, a Belgian subsidiary of Bayer CropScience today announced that they have signed an agreement under which Bayer CropScience will have access to Cellectis' proprietary custom-made Meganuclease technology for use in plant research and to develop products for use in agriculture. Financial terms and conditions were not disclosed.

Meganucleases are a proprietary genome engineering technology developed by Cellectis that allows for highly precise 'editing' to genetic sequences. They consist of sequence-specific endonucleases with large ((greater than)18-24 bp) recognition sites. This high specificity ensures Meganucleases can bind and cut at a single point in a chosen genome without the imprecision associated with most other forms of gene modification. Custom-made Meganucleases can be designed for very specific gene targeting applications. Bayer CropScience intends to use custom-made Meganucleases in plant research and the development of new products.

"We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Bayer CropScience. We feel it validates Cellectis' approach of using custom-made Meganucleases for gene targeting in plants," commented Isabelle Pelletier-Bressac, Vice President Business Development of Cellectis, "This agreement once more demonstrates the strong industrial potential of the Meganuclease technology in agriculture."

"Bayer CropScience strongly believes that the ability to make precise, surgical changes in crop genomes has the potential to be the next break-through enablement for increasing crop yield and creating new plant-based products for our customers. The Cellectis technology can enable us to make such surgical changes in an efficient way," said Dr. Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, Head of Research for BioScience.

Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 6 billion, is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of about 19,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

Bayer BioScience NV located in Ghent, Belgium is one of the innovation centers of the BioScience Business Group within Bayer CropScience AG.

Cellectis SA was founded in 2000, as a spin-off from the Institut Pasteur. Today, Cellectis is the world leader in applying the technology of Meganuclease Recombination Systems to in vivo genome engineering and genome surgery. The company is focused on the research and development of custom-made Meganucleases for in vivo DNA interventions and also provides new tools for rational reverse genetics and targeted recombination. Cellectis develops Meganucleases that can induce unique site-directed double-strand breaks in a living cell, and can be used for biotechnological and therapeutic applications. The company is focusing on bringing "genome surgery" to clinic as a genuine new molecular medicine approach.

BACKGROUND

Meganucleases are molecules that target a highly specific (one cut every of 10 to the power of 14 bp) break in an entire genome. Cellectis has developed Meganucleases with novel specificities for inducing targeted gene repair through homologous recombination. The specificity allows for highly precise "cut & paste" within the chromosomes. Meganucleases can also accomplish gene deletion or insertion in one step without using foreign DNA transgenes.

In nature, Meganucleases come from unicellular organisms, bacteria, yeasts, algae and some plant organelles. Natural Meganucleases operate in many organisms to make "cut & paste" changes in the genetic program at the site where their target sequence (very specific combinations of 12 to 30 base pairs) lies naturally or has been previously inserted into genomic DNA. Cellectis has developed a unique expertise in combining custom or natural Meganucleases with specially engineered targeting DNA matrices into complete Meganuclease Recombination Systems (MRS). These can be used for very efficient gene excision, gene editing or gene replacement, in virtually any organism.