ERS Genomics and Lepton Pharmaceuticals LTD Enter CRISPR/Cas9 License Agreement

License allows Lepton, with their proprietary Castling Technology, to develop and commercialize products and services using CRISPR/Cas9 technology

DUBLIN and ZIKHRON YA'AKOV, Israel, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ERS Genomics Limited ('ERS') is pleased to announce a new license agreement with Lepton Pharmaceuticals LTD ('Lepton"). This is a non-exclusive licensing agreement granting Lepton access to the ERS CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio for certain applications.

ERS, co-founded by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, 2020 Nobel Prize winner for gene-editing, provides access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property. Over 90 patents are held in over eighty countries.

Lepton Pharmaceutical LTD is a biotechnology company developing a proprietary, breakthrough technology (Castling Technology) to substantially improve adaptive cell-mediated immune response (T-cells, CAR-T-cells, NK-cells.)

Dr. Daniel Zurr, CEO of Lepton said: "We are very pleased to establish this relationship and license agreement with ERS Genomics. It will greatly assist us to develop our innovative Castling technology to significantly improve immune cells efficiency and longevity to fight cancer."

Eric Rhodes, CEO at ERS Genomics added: "Lepton's Castling technology has great potential to impact the field of immunotherapies and we are pleased to help enable Lepton in pursuing this exciting approach."

The Castling technology is a proprietary, miRNA-based general technology platform, essentially consisting of the manipulation of miRNA expression to achieve enhanced efficacy and longevity (reduced exhaustion) of cell-based therapies. miRNAs are noncoding RNAs that each affects the expression of hundreds of coding genes. The Castling technology allows, in a single gene editing event in the immune cell (either allogeneic or autologous), to impact the expression of a multitude of genes in the immune cells, once such miRNAs penetrate the microenvironment of cancer cells. This technology aims to revolutionize the immune cell cancer therapy field.

 Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.

About ERS Genomics

ERS Genomics is a biotechnology company based in Dublin, Ireland. The company was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property held by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier. Non-exclusive licenses are available for research and sale of products and services across multiple fields including: research tools, kits, reagents; discovery of novel targets for therapeutic intervention; cell lines for discovery and screening of novel drug candidates; GMP production of healthcare products; companion animal and livestock health; production of industrial materials such as enzymes, biofuels and chemicals; and synthetic biology. For additional information please visit www.ersgenomics.com

About Lepton Pharmaceuticals

Lepton Pharmaceuticals LTD. is based in Israel. Lepton focuses on subtle and precise silencing of coding RNA expression by small non-coding RNA molecules, working via the DROSHA/DICER/RISC pathways, small interfering RNA (siRNA), and microRNA (miRNA), to develop products and services to, ultimately, improve therapies for underserved diseases and improve and change patients' lives. For additional information please visit www.leptonpharma.com

Media contact: 

Dara O'Donnell
ERS Genomics
Tel: + 353-1-539 0083
dara.odonnell@ersgenomics.com

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