Cellectis bioresearch and Lonza Enter Development and Commercial Manufacturing Agreement

PARIS and BASEL, Switzerland, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Cellectis bioresearch, the French genome customization specialist and a commercial subsidiary of Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS), and Lonza, a world leader in biotechnology production, announce today that the companies have entered into an agreement for the development and commercialization of a bioengineered cell line.

Cellectis bioresearch will use its meganucleases to deactivate ("knock-out") the glutamine synthetase (GS) in CHOK1SV, Lonza's proprietary host cell line. Cellectis bioresearch specializes in the commercialization of genome customization tools using meganucleases. Meganucleases are molecular scissors that can be directed to a single highly specific site in the genome of a cell, thereby allowing a wide range of precise genome modifications, including targeted gene integration, gene knock-out as well as modulation of gene function.

"Lonza's ability to master production of the highest quality cell lines makes the company a perfect partner for the application of our meganuclease technology," said Marc Le Bozec, CEO of Cellectis bioresearch. "The production of recombinant proteins is a key area where our technology is really bringing a real benefit to the biomanufacturing industry. It is an example of a new application of meganucleases, which are very efficient at knocking out specific genes."

John Birch, CSO of Lonza Biopharmaceuticals, added, "Lonza is delighted to work with Cellectis bioresearch. This collaboration makes sense and will enhance our long-standing and successful GS technology."

Lonza's proprietary technology, the GS System™, uses selection via glutamine metabolism to rapidly generate high-yielding and stable producing cell lines. Hundreds of cell lines using the GS System™ have already been created to generate therapeutic proteins for clinical trials and in-market supply. Removal of the cell-based GS activity will enable further improvements to be made to the selection process for creating highly productive recombinant cell lines.

About Cellectis bioresearch

Cellectis bioresearch was incorporated as a subsidiary of Cellectis SA (Alternext: ALCLS) in June 2008. It provides life science researchers with ready-to-use research tools for genome customization.  These tools, based on meganucleases, enable the customization of cells with optimized features for drug discovery, protein production and gene function study.

More information at www.cellectis-bioresearch.com

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About Lonza

Lonza is one of the world's leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Its products and services span its customers' needs from research to final product manufacture. Lonza is the global leader in the production and support of active pharmaceutical ingredients both chemically as well as biotechnologically. Biopharmaceuticals are one of the key growth drivers of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Lonza has strong capabilities in large and small molecules, peptides, amino acids and niche bioproducts which play an important role in the development of novel medicines and healthcare products. Lonza is a leader in cellbased research, endotoxin detection and cell therapy manufacturing. Lonza is also a leading provider of value chemical and biotech ingredients to the nutrition, hygiene, preservation, agro and personal care markets. Lonza is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. In 2009, Lonza had sales of CHF 2.690 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe, for shares in Cellectis in any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Company's objectives. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management only and involve risk and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, whether the Company will be successful in implementing its strategies, whether there will be continued growth in the relevant market and demand for the Company's products, new products or technological developments introduced by competitors, and risks associated with managing growth. Unfavorable developments in connection with these and other risks and uncertainties described, in particular, in the Company's prospectus prepared in connection with its IPO and on which the French Autorite des marches financiers ("AMF") granted its visa no. 07-023 on January 22, 2007, could cause the Company to fail to achieve the objectives expressed by the forward-looking statements above.

SOURCE Cellectis bioresearch