UCOE (ubiquitous chromatin opening element) gene expression technology bought from Innovata, a UK based product development company focused on respiratory disease and inhaled therapies
Serologicals reports that Celliance, its wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired the UCOE (ubiquitous chromatin opening element) gene expression technology from Innovata, a UK based product development company focused on respiratory disease and inhaled therapies, for an undisclosed sum.
UCOEs improve the yield, consistency and stability of protein production in cultured mammalian cells, allowing simpler and quicker generation of proteins at small scale for drug discovery and research, as well as quicker and easier isolation of stable, highly productive cell lines suitable for larger-scale manufacture of protein therapeutics.
Further applications of the technology include gene therapy, transgenics and generation of cell lines for drug screening.
This technology is under license to a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in North America, Europe and Japan, including Medarex and Maxygen.
The UCOE technology had been identified as non-core to Innovata following a strategic review by its new management team earlier this year.
"We are extremely pleased to be able to add the UCOE gene expression technology to our portfolio of products for the biotechnology industry," said David Bellitt, president of Celliance.
"The UCOE technology will augment our cell line development and protein expansion capabilities, thereby improving our customers' abilities to more efficiently manufacture recombinant proteins in large scale, while aiding in the development of the next generation of our customers' therapeutic proteins".
"The divestment of our UCOE gene expression technology is a further step in the refocusing of Innovata on respiratory disease and inhaled therapies," said Kieran Murphy, chief executive officer on Innovata.
"We are pleased to have found a buyer in Celliance, a world leading provider of products and services for the bioprocessing industry, where UCOE has the potential to add significant value to its product offering."
