Cellectis and Thermo Fisher Scientific have entered into a series of agreements for the use of TAL nucleases under the brand name TALEN. Commercial terms were not disclosed.
 
Thermo Fisher will have rights to the TAL nucleases with exclusive rights to grant R&D, bioproduction, and certain applied markets, where Thermo currently markets TALEN for these applications. Cellectis will have a worldwide license under Thermo Fisher’s rights to TAL nucleases in the R&D field for internal and collaborative research, for commercialization of TAL gene editing for Cellectis bioresearch’s products and services, as well as for Cellectis plant sciences. Cellectis is granted a worldwide license for therapeutic R&D, including rights to grant sublicenses for therapeutic uses in the fields of T cells and Natural Killer cells.
 
Dr. André Choulika, chairman and chief executive officer of Cellectis said, “We are very pleased to enter into these agreements that strengthen Cellectis’ position in the uses of TALEN gene editing in Cellectis’ core businesses, and solidifies our position as a leader in the field of engineered CART Chimeric Antigen Receptors therapeutics. TAL nucleases have many applications in genome engineering and their efficacy and specificity make them the world’s best gene editing technology for therapeutic applications. Cellectis founded the field of gene editing 14 years ago and is now primarily focused on adoptive immunotherapy using TALEN-engineered T cells combined with (CARs).”
 
“The agreements between Thermo Fisher and Cellectis createa powerful intellectual property portfolio comprised not only of the foundational work conducted at the University of Minnesota and Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, but also additional intellectual property controlled by each party,” said Helge Bastian, general manager and vice president of synthetic biology at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The current alliance clarifies the path for the use of TALEN gene editing in research and applied markets, and represents a major milestone in Thermo Fisher’s strategy to build a comprehensive gene editing technology platform.”