Sharpening the gene scissors together
Max Delbrück Centre and biotech start-up AlgenScribe cooperate
The Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, and the biotech company AlgenScribe from Nice have agreed to cooperate to further develop their gene-editing tools. The aim is to utilize synergies, accelerate research, and ultimately develop cell therapies for genetically determined diseases.
A special kind of German-French friendship is being fostered here: The Max Delbrück Center and the French biotech company AlgenScribe want to jointly further develop and improve their genome editing tools. To this end, Frédéric Zampatti, CEO of AlgenScribe, and Dr. Ralf Kühn from the Max Delbrück Center signed a cooperation agreement in July, 16, 2024. They aim to utilize synergies between their respective technologies, expand, and accelerate research together.
Dr. Ralf Kühn, head of the “Genome Engineering & Disease Models” research group at the Max Delbrück Center, has been researching gene editing techniques for more than ten years. His team uses and improves the CRISPR-Cas9 gene scissors. The HIROS/replace technology (Homology Independent Replacement of Sequences) developed in his lab can also efficiently exchange genetic fragments in differentiated and non-dividing mammalian cells in a very targeted and sequence-accurate manner. Kühn's aim is to gain a better understanding of genetic diseases and to develop novel cell therapies with the help of the sharpened gene scissors.
International cooperation
This goal is shared by AlgenScribe, a biotechnology company based in Nice, which has also developed a proprietary gene-editing platform. Frédéric Zampatti, CEO of AlgenScribe, said at the signing of the cooperation agreement: “This academic collaboration, our first one outside France, will enable us to expand the scope of our platform as we immediately spotted potential synergies. We’re eager to see the results of this collaboration. We’d like to thank the technology transfer office of the Max Delbrück Center and its longstanding technology transfer partner Ascenion. Thanks to this support, we were able to reach an agreement just a few months after our first meeting.”
Ralf Kühn emphasized: “For us, the cooperation with AlgenScribe offers an opportunity to expand our gene repair tool and hopefully bring it to application and commercialization more quickly. I look forward to this international collaboration.”
Dr. Sigrid Scheek, Technology Manager at Ascenion, said: “We are delighted that we were able to initiate this cooperation at the French partnering event BioFit in Marseille.” Dr. Gerd Müller, Head of Technology Transfer (interim) at the Max Delbrück Center, added: “It offers a great potential of synergies to jointly develop therapeutic applications.”
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