French genomics company thrives on meganuclease technology

Cellectis on the move

02 November 2009 17:18  [Source: ICB]

Genomics start-up Cellectis grabs the attention of major agricultural biotech companies and sets sights on biotech, pharma and biofuels industries

Cellectis

Despite a troubled economy, France-based genomics company Cellectis has managed to stay on high ground.

Formed in 2000 when it was a spun from the private French nonprofit biology research foundation Institut Pasteur, Cellectis has built its success on cutting-edge technology for DNA programming.

The company's platform technology is based on an unusual class of enzymes known as the meganucleases.

Found in single-celled organisms, bacteria, yeast, algae and some plant organelles, meganucleases are endonucleases that perform "cut-and-paste"-type changes in DNA at sites identified by specific sequences of 12-30 base pairs.

These target sequences are uncommon, and ordinarily they would have to be inserted into a strand of DNA where the cut-and-paste operation is to occur. But Cellectis has developed the means to modify the recognition capability of meganucleases so that they target other natural sequences of particular interest.

The result is a versatile tool for the precise modification of living DNA.

"The increase in the production capacity of the meganuclease platform to 20 new products per year was the company's key milestone in 2008. As a result of this expanded capacity, Cellectis is now in a position to produce DNA recombination systems in all the company's strategic applications," says Cellectis CEO Andre Choulika.

The company has structured its business development activities to address the key markets for living organisms: therapeutic applications for repairing DNA, the development of innovative research tools, and the targeted modification of genes for agriculture.

"New applications appear regularly and we want to address them - as in biofuels, for example," says Choulika. "The development of therapeutic meganucleases has reached the preclinical stage. Collaborative projects are currently being built up in the agricultural biochemistry sector and Cellectis plans to take a pivotal role."

Although the recession has hit the biotech industry hard, Cellectis has been spared, according to Choulika.

"So far we have prepared a conservative budget for 2009, but in line with our 2008-2010 strategic plan and making no compromise to our ambitions," he says.

WHEELING AND DEALING
Cellectis gained momentum with several deals this year. In September, major US agrochem and biotech company Monsanto signed a licensing deal to apply Cellectis's meganuclease technology to plants.

Monsanto will pay Cellectis a €3m ($4.4m) up-front payment, and a €1m equity investment is slated to allow Cellectis to scale the technology to agriculture. Monsanto plans to initially use the technology across its portfolio of core crops, including corn, cotton, soy, canola and wheat. Its license also allows future exploration of this technology in all plants.

"The increase in production capacity was the key milestone in 2008" Andre Choulika, CEO, Cellectis

In June, Cellectis signed a deal with international agricultural cooperative group Limagrain, whereby Limagrain will use Cellectis's I-Scel meganuclease in plants. I-Scel was the first homing endonuclease to be identified in the 1980s. Today, it is the most widely used endonuclease in research and genome engineering.

The technology gives Limagrain the ability to create targeted insertions in plant DNA to express traits of interest to both farmers and consumers, says Limagrain.

The licensed technology will be developed by French plant biotechnology company Biogemma, in which Limagrain is a shareholder. Biogemma will also be responsible for producing the plants that come out of this technology.

Earlier in May, Cellectis signed a licensing deal with Servier, a French pharmaceutical group, for use of Cellectis's modified cell lines in high-throughput screening. The deal will accelerate development of high-performance screening tools used to discover innovative drug targets, Servier says.

Servier's main research areas are cardiovascular diseases, the central nervous system and psychiatry, cancer research, diabetes and metabolism and rheumatology.

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By: Feliza Mirasol
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