Life science reagents and tools company Abcam announced today that it has acquired genome editing technologies firm EdiGene's live cell line and lysates portfolio.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
EdiGene has developed an off-the shelf diploid library of more than 2,800 single clonal knockout cell lines, targeting more than 2,600 genes in commonly used human cancer cell lines — including HeLa, HEK293-T, A549, HCT116, Hep G2 and MCF7, Abcam said. Ready-made diploid knockout cell lines can be used for antibody validation, in the study of biological pathways and disease models, and for screening and cellular assays.
"We are excited to be able to bring the same level of industry-leading quality and data to the cell lines market as we have to research antibodies," Cheri Walker, Abcam's senior vice president of corporate development, said in a statement. "The cell line market is in the early stages of development as a research tool, where the provision of more choice, with the right gene targets in the right cell lines, will allow the market to rapidly expand."
EdiGene CEO Dong Wei added that the sale of the portfolio to Abcam comes on the heels of the firm's strategic decision to focus on its pipeline of biotherapeutic products and high-throughput genome screening services. The company raised $10 million in a Series pre-B Plus financing round in February, which it said validated its strategy of translating its proprietary platforms into potential therapeutics.
The lysate products will be available on Abcam's website early in the fourth quarter, the company noted. The expanded cell line offerings will follow throughout 2020.
Abcam also said it will use these products to support further knockout antibody validation as a part of its ongoing antibody quality initiative. In April, the company signed a deal to provide NanoString Technologies with custom panels for its GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler platform from Abcam's collection of 6,000-plus recombinant monoclonal antibodies, which have been validated for use in fresh frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue.
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