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Cellectis and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) sign cooperation agreement

22 Jan 2010 - André Choulika, CEO of Cellectis S.A. and Marion Guillou, President of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), have signed a five year cooperation agreement. Cellectis and INRA will work together in a number of fields, including cell biology, plant and animal biotechnology, and will investigate the potential of applications of a range of technologies in which Cellectis specializes. These include reverse genetics, homologous recombination and gene targeting. These techniques have a number of applications, notably: inserting many genes of interest at a specified location, developing more efficient genetics, modulating gene expression and replacing alleles. They therefore offer the possibility of technological engineering to enlarge the analysis of gene functions and propose, when possible, innovations in agriculture, environmental sciences, the agrofood sector and green chemistry.
 
Through this agreement, Cellectis and INRA wish to pool their expertise where possible, to acquire new scientific knowledge and to create technological innovations, along with disseminating these results and knowledge and transferring their technology, particularly to small and medium companies in the agrofood, agriculture and environment sectors.
 
This non-exclusive partnership will be developed in the field of genome engineering for all living species except humans. It will be monitored by a Steering Committee composed of three representatives from each organization.