Date: September 23rd, 2016 1:00 PM
Author: Galvanic metal becky
libs apoplectic
Monsanto signs license deal for gene-editing technology
Sep 23, 2016, 6:51am CDT
Monsanto Co. said Thursday it has reached a global licensing deal with Broad Institute and Harvard University for the use of their CRISPR-Cas genome-editing technology in agriculture.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The Broad Institute, part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holds several U.S. patents covering the technology, officials said.
The CRISPR-Cas technology works by making precisely targeted modifications in a cell's DNA, similar to a "search-and-replace" function in word processing, officials said. Such technology allows scientists to integrate specific genes as well as enhance beneficial plant characteristics or remove undesirable ones. The non-exclusive agreement will allow development of a wide array of crop improvements, officials said.
“The license to CRISPR-Cas from the Broad Institute provides access to an exciting tool for our growing body of genome-editing research,” said Tom Adams, biotechnology lead for Monsanto. “Genome-editing technology is complementary to our ongoing discovery research and provides an incredible resource to further unlock our world-leading germplasm and genome libraries.”
Monsanto earlier this year entered into licensing agreements for the use of gene-editing technologies from Germany's Nomad Bioscience GmbH and Israel-based TargetGene Biotechnologies.
Creve Coeur-based Monsanto announced Sept. 14 that it agreed to a $66 billion buyout by Germany's Bayer AG.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2016/09/23/monsanto-signs-license-deal-for-gene-editing.html
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3361144&forum_id=2#31474568)