Rehovot, Israel and Adel, Iowa
September 4, 2007
Evogene Ltd (TASE: EVGN) and Midwest Oilseeds, Inc.
announced the signature of a licensing agreement for plant
transformation technologies. Through the agreement, Evogene
shall receive access to Midwest Oilseeds' advanced gene
transformation technologies applicable for leading commercial
crops such as corn, soybean and canola.
Evogene uses a proprietary computational gene discovery platform
to discover key genes related to agricultural traits and
validates them through model and target plants. Transformation
is the process of inserting the genes into the genome of plants
to create plants expressing the desired trait. The
transformation technology licensed-in intends to allow Evogene
to more efficiently validate its candidate genes and further
advance in the trait development pipeline. Evogene’s pipeline
includes groups of genes targeted at improving agricultural
traits such as: yield, yield stability via tolerance to abiotic
stress (mainly drought and salinity), nitrogen use efficiency,
enhancement of cotton fiber quality and improved oil yield for
biodiesel production.
Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO stated: “We are pleased
to add this advanced transformation technology to our product
development platform and expect it to allow us better
flexibility and efficiency through the development pipeline."
Joseph Saluri, Vice-President for Midwest Oilseeds stated: “The
Aerosol Beam Injector technology is a great tool for the
advancement of biotechnology and traits. We are confident that
this technology will assist Evogene in bringing its new traits
to the marketplace.”
Evogene’s mission is to be a world leader in delivering
improved plant traits to the agro-biotechnology and biofuel
industries through the use of a continuously improving
proprietary platform that combines state-of-the-art
computational genomics, molecular biology and advanced breeding
methods. Evogene’s current product development portfolio
includes such traits as: abiotic stress tolerance and yield,
improving nitrogen use efficiency, enhancement of cotton fiber
quality, increasing oil yield for the biodiesel industry and
plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded
in 2002 as a spin-off of the agro-biotechnology division of
Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN). Evogene’s core in-silico
technology, the ATHLETE, is based on Compugen’s proprietary
LEADS computational platform. Evogene completed an IPO on the
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in June 2007. For additional
information, please visit Evogene’s website at
www.evogene.com
Midwest Oilseeds, Inc. is focused on delivering the
highest-yielding soybean germplasm in the seed industry. As the
soybean genetics supplier of first choice to the seed industry,
Midwest Oilseeds supplies a substantial portion of the soybean
genetics planted in the United States today. Midwest Oilseeds’
world-class soybean research and testing system includes
operations throughout the Midwestern United States, as well as
in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina.
Stine Biotechnology, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Midwest Oilseeds, Inc., has been granted a United States patent
on a proprietary transformation technology for the introduction
of DNA into plant cells. This new transformation system is known
as Aerosol Beam Injection. For additional information, please
visit www.stineseed.com
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