Clontech Laboratories, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio and Heidelberg-based TET Systems (TET), a privately-held German biotech company, have signed an amendment to their existing license agreement. Under the expanded license agreement, Clontech obtains rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise Tet Systems products as the Tet-On 3G Inducible Expression System.
The Tet-On 3G Inducible Expression System provides highly inducible, sensitive control of gene expression.
The Tet-System includes two components, whose rights were acquired by TET an improved transcriptional activator developed by scientists at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam (AMC) in the Netherlands, and a minimal Tet promoter developed at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
The Tet-System currently marketed by Clontech, offers researchers even greater control of gene regulation due to lower expression in the non-induced state, even in transient transfection settings.
The system’s ten-fold increased sensitivity for the inducing agent (Doxycycline) also expands the long-established benefits of dynamic transactivation, particularly for in vivo models.
Clontech expects to launch a broad suite of Tet-Systems, including different promoters, fluorescent markers, and bicistronic systems, which are expected to be available by August 2nd, 2010.
Carol Lou, general manager of Clontech Laboratories, said: “Clontech has a long history of leadership in developing technologies for gene delivery and expression, and a long-standing partnership with Tet Systems. We are pleased to continue and extend this history by adding the Tet-On 3G Inducible Expression System to our portfolio of Tet System Products, which also includes our inducible Lenti-X systems.”