GENASSIST offers a broad range of thoroughly validated tools alongside a suite of services designed to enable any cell line generation project to be efficiently addressed.
The company has designed GENASSIST to make genome editing accessible for everyone. Horizon offers not just plasmids for CRISPR gene editing, but also custom guide RNA design and validation (to provide customers with confidence that they are working with a suitably active guide); custom donor design and manufacturing; QuickStart cell lines that constitutively produce Cas9 nickase; over 550 X-MAN™ cell lines ready for further modification; and direct access to Horizon’s expert gene-editing scientists.
By taking a technology agnostic approach that employs both CRISPR and rAAV gene editing technologies, Horizon is able to not only work with researchers to suggest the right approach for their specific project needs, but is also in the unique position of being able to combine the technologies to achieve efficiencies not possible with one technology alone.
“Horizon’s success has been driven by the way we partner with our customers. By offering access to our gene editing expertise we give researchers the best chance of success in their gene editing projects,” said Eric Rhodes, VP of R&D and Chief Technology Officer, Horizon Discovery. “Our new GENASSIST range of tools and services, combined with access to rAAV, ZFN, and CRISPR technologies, gives researchers an invaluable resource to determine the function of endogenous gene alterations and their effect on disease and therapeutic responses.”
Dr Darrin M Disley, CEO, Horizon Discovery, commented: “Horizon’s goal is to make the latest developments in gene editing accessible to the wider scientific audience. As the only company which can offer both nuclease techniques in the form of CRISPR or ZFN and homologous recombination harnessing rAAV, we are ensuring that researchers can make an informed choice of which technology or combination of technologies is best in order to gain the answer to the biological question being asked.”
About Horizon Discovery (LSE: HZD) www.horizondiscovery.com/
Horizon Discovery Group Plc (Horizon) is a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Using GENESIS™, Horizon is able to alter almost any endogenous gene sequence of a human or mammalian cell-line quickly, reliably and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes.
Horizon has applied GENESIS™ to create over 500 X-MAN™ cell lines, the world’s first source of genetically-defined and patient-relevant human cell lines, accurately modeling the disease-causing mutations found in cancer patients. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by academic and industry leaders to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, which may lead to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently-available and future drug treatments. This enables the design of shorter, more focused, and less expensive clinical trials, ultimately providing the tools to identify the ‘right drugs’ for the ‘right patients’ based upon the unique genetic mutations that define their disease.
In addition to the X-MAN™ cell lines, Horizon provides GENESIS™, GENASSIST™, Haplogen Human Gene Trap derived products and services, and Sirion’s RNAiONE custom shRNA development services, off-the-shelf validated shRNA and cDNA over-expression reagents. Horizon’s products and services have industrial application in: bio-pharmaceutical process optimization; clinical diagnostic development; drug discovery & development; and the provision of reference standards for genomic-based clinical research platforms.
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Media enquiries Horizon:
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Zyme Communications
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Email: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
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Horizon Discovery launches new gene editing tools and services
7 April 2014
Horizon Discovery™ Group plc (LSE: HZD), the life science company supplying research tools to organisations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalised medicines, today announced the launch of its full range of GENASSIST™ gene editing kits, reagents and support services that enable easier, robust implementation of gene editing experiments with CRISPR and rAAV.