ERS Genomics and ZeClinics Sign CRISPR/Cas9 License Agreement

ERS Genomics Limited, which was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property co-owned by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, and ZeClinics, a contract research organization using zebrafish to carry out services focused on analyzing the safety, efficacy and biomedical relevance of new compounds, today announced a non-exclusive license agreement granting ZeClinics access to ERS Genomics' CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio.

ZeClinics supports academic, pharmaceutical and biotech organizations in pre-clinical studies by providing services based on its zebrafish disease models. The Company is applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology to create single knock-out, double knock-out and somatic F0 knock-out zebrafish variants.

"CRISPR/Cas9 has become an important tool in many areas of research. At ERS we are expanding our efforts to make the technology broadly available, so it can be used by as many people as possible, and we are therefore pleased to support ZeClinics with this license agreement," said Eric Rhodes, CEO of ERS Genomics. "By providing them access to this foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property, ZeClinics is able to continue to provide valuable preclinical models and services for drug discovery and development."

"The zebrafish model is a powerful tool for answering complex questions," commented Simone Calzolari, CEO and Co-founder, ZeClinics. "The use of CRISPR tools to modify zebrafish models allows us to streamline functional genomic processes, provide insights into biologically relevant knowledge on diseases. The license from ERS expands our CRISPR IP portfolio and, alongside the license from The Broad Institute, allows us to push ahead with the application of this advanced technology, ultimately increasing the validity and potency of zebrafish models for the drug discovery process."

Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.