Richmond, California and Bannockburn, Illinois
January 9, 2001

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) and Renessen LLC, a joint venture between Cargill and Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON), announced today that they have signed an agreement to apply Sangamo's proprietary gene regulation technology to enhance the value of certain crops for the animal feed and processing industries. Under the terms of the agreement, Sangamo will receive certain payments, including research funding and royalties on the sales of any commercialized products. In return, Renessen will receive a worldwide exclusive license to Sangamo's technology for the sale and use of certain enhanced crops in the animal feed and processing industries. 

"Our increased understanding of the genomes of various plants is resulting in new opportunities to create improved crops," said Edward Lanphier, Sangamo's president and chief executive officer. "Sangamo's technology has the potential to increase the nutritional value of important crops, to enhance their disease resistance, or to increase their yields. Working with Renessen, with its established agricultural expertise, will allow us to begin applying our technology in this marketplace." 

"At Renessen, we are dedicated to the development of quality traits and customized products to improve the functionality of the world's grain processing and animal feed"," said Norman Hay, Renessen co-CEO. "This agreement with Sangamo allows us to develop our new products - in a very targeted and specific fashion." 

Sangamo is focused on the research and development of novel transcription factors for the regulation of gene expression. Sangamo's Universal Gene Recognition(TM) technology enables the engineering of transcription factors known as zinc finger DNA binding proteins, or ZFPs. By engineering ZFPs so that they can recognize a specific gene, Sangamo has created ZFP transcription factors that can control gene expression and, consequently, cell function. The company intends to establish Universal Gene Recognition as a widely used technology for commercial applications in pharmaceutical discovery, human therapeutics, clinical diagnostics, agriculture and industrial biotechnology. Over twenty leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have utilized ZFPs. In addition, Sangamo has a strategic alliance with Edwards Lifesciences Corporation to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. For more information about Sangamo, visit the company's web site at www.sangamo.com . 

Renessen, headquartered in Bannockburn, Illinois, is a joint venture between Monsanto and Cargill focused on the development, commercialization and marketing of grains, oilseeds and other crops that have been improved through biotechnology for the grain processing and animal feed industries. Renessen intends to be the breakthrough leader in quality traits, connecting biotechnology innovations with processing know-how in the first global alliance that spans the agricultural value chain. For more information about Renessen, visit the company's web site at www.renessen.com.  

Company news release
N3248