AMRI, a contract research and manufacturing organization, has entered into a non-exclusive commercial license agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard for the use of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology and has completed several projects for its customers. The company will continue to use the technology to enhance its drug-discovery service offerings and internal research and development. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the commercial use license, AMRI has gained access to intellectual property related to CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The application of CRISPR-Cas9 technology benefits specific AMRI services, including protein production, cell line and assay development, high content screening and analysis, and target validation and assessment.

The CRISPR/Cas system serves as a naturally occurring bacterial immune system that confers resistance to foreign genetic elements such as those from viruses. It has been developed as a method for editing the genetic code in mammalian cells, which allows researchers to knock out or enhance the expression of targeted genes.

Source: AMRI