Clontech Laboratories, Inc. licenses CRISPR/Cas9 technology from the Broad Institute

Mountain View, CA—October 27, 2014—Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced that they have entered into a non-exclusive license agreement with the Broad Institute to access intellectual property related to the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system.

"Clontech is pleased to be able to provide innovative tools for CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing under our Guide-it brand," commented Carol Lou, General Manager of Clontech Laboratories, Inc. "We believe that CRISPR/Cas9 technology represents a significant improvement over existing genome editing tools, reaching a new level of targeting, efficiency, and in particular, ease of use. It is destined to become as valuable and widely utilized as RNAi; perhaps more so."

Clontech's initial product offering includes Guide-it kits for in vitro production and screening of single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) and a method to confirm the presence of targeted mutations using direct PCR and Clontech's Guide-it Resolvase enzyme. Read more about these products at www.clontech.com/CRISPR.

About Clontech Laboratories, Inc.

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., develops, manufactures, and distributes a wide range of life science research reagents under the Clontech and Takara brands. Key products include SMARTer cDNA synthesis kits for a variety of samples and applications, including NGS; high-performance qPCR and PCR reagents (including the Takara Ex Taq, Takara LA Taq, Titanium, and Advantage enzymes); RT enzymes and SMART library construction kits; the innovative In-Fusion cloning system; Tet-based inducible gene expression systems; Living Colors fluorescent proteins; and a range of Macherey-Nagel nucleic acid purification tools. These and other products support applications including NGS, gene discovery, regulation, and function; protein expression and purification; RNAi and stem cell studies; and plant and food research. For more information, visit www.clontech.com.

About Takara Bio Inc.

Takara Bio Inc. is an innovative biotechnology company based in Shiga, Japan. As a world leader in biotechnology research and development, Takara Bio was the first company to market PCR technology in Japan and is also the developer of the RetroNectin reagent, which is used as a world-standard in gene therapy protocols. In addition to providing research reagents and equipment to the life science research market, Takara Bio has active research and product development activities in the fields of gene and cell-based therapy, and agricultural biotechnology; and is committed to preventing disease and improving the quality of life for all people through the use of biotechnology. Through strategic alliances with other industry leaders, the Company aims to extend its reach around the world. More information is available at www.takara-bio.com.

About the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was launched in 2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods, and data openly to the entire scientific community.

Founded by MIT, Harvard, and its affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to http://www.broadinstitute.org.

Contact Information

Clontech Laboratories, Inc.
Lorna Neilson, Ph.D.
Director, Business Development
Clontech Laboratories, Inc.
1290 Terra Bella Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043 
lorna_neilson@clontech.com 
650.919.7372