BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Cellectis SA and the French pharmaceutical company Laboratoires Servier signed a collaboration agreement covering the engineering of industrial cell lines for use in pharmaceutical research and development.

Servier, of Neuilly-sur-Seine, will utilize Cellectis' Pi-10 cell platform and meganuclease recombination system for the targeted and reproducible insertion of genes of interest in the cell line. The cell platform will enable Servier to generate in a rational and reproducible manner consistent ranges of distinct yet closely comparable cell lines for direct use in its industrial processes.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Pi-10 cell platform is based on the widely used CHO K1 cell line and was engineered and made programmable by Cellectis in such a way that target genes for drugs always will insert at the same genomic location via meganuclease-mediated recombination. The resulting cells only differ with respect to the inserted gene and thus serve as novel industrial tools for studying drug targets and screening drug candidates.

Meganucleases are a proprietary genome-engineering technology developed by Cellectis, which is based in the Biocitech science and business park in the Paris suburb of Romainville. They are sequence-specific endonucleases with relatively long recognition sites that can induce surgically-precise modifications in the genome of ex vivo or in vivo cells and thus permit the high-precision rewriting of genetic sequences.

Cellectis pointed out that cell engineering (especially for the pharmaceutical industry) is an important element in its marketing strategy and that the agreement with Servier reflects its endeavors to have its proprietary meganuclease technology applied in that area. According to Cellectis' vice president for corporate development, David Sourdive, "this collaboration nicely illustrates Cellectis' development strategy in the industrial tools sector."