Dow AgroSciences, Sangamo BioSciences Announce Research and Commercial License Agreement in Plant Agriculture
Dow AgroSciences LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced the signing of a Research and Commercial License Agreement. The agreement provides Dow AgroSciences with access to Sangamo's proprietary zinc finger DNA-binding protein (ZFP) technology for use in plants and plant cell cultures to develop products in areas including, on an exclusive basis, plant agriculture and industrial products, and, on a non-exclusive basis, animal health and biopharmaceutical products produced in plants.
ZFPs are the dominant class of naturally occurring transcription factors in organisms from yeast to humans. Transcription factors, which are found in the nucleus of every cell, bind to DNA to regulate gene expression. The ability to selectively control specific genes is emerging as a critical tool in modern biotechnology. Though there are many kinds of transcription factors, only ZFPs are amenable to engineering and precise targeting to a particular gene or genes of interest. By engineering ZFPs that recognize a specific DNA sequence Sangamo scientists have created ZFP TFs(TM) that can control gene expression and consequently, cell function. For example, Sangamo has demonstrated that plant oils can be improved using ZFP TFs(TM).
Sangamo has also developed sequence-specific ZFNs(TM) for precision gene modification and targeted gene insertion. These technologies have the potential to play a major role in bringing new discoveries in genomics forward to the marketplace. According to a 2004 International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) report, transgenic traits were planted on an estimated 200 million acres, or 29 percent of the global acres for soybean, cotton, maize, and canola.
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