EpiCypher Expands Exclusive Licensing Agreement to Advance CUT&Tag Technology

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- EpiCypher^®, a trailblazer in epigenetic research technologies, is pleased to announce an exclusive licensing agreement with Fred Hutch Cancer Center. This agreement grants EpiCypher access to pivotal intellectual property (IP) related to CUT&Tag technology, a revolutionary advancement in chromatin profiling developed by renowned scientist Dr. Steven Henikoff, a Fred Hutch molecular biologist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The licensed IP encompasses three key areas of CUT&Tag technology poised to transform the field of epigenomics:

1. Cleavage Under Targeted Accessible Chromatin (CUTAC): This technology, detailed in patent application PCT/US2021/049944, offers unprecedented sensitivity for chromatin accessibility profiling. By mapping chromatin accessibility at transcription-coupled genomic features, such as promoters, enhancers, and gene bodies, CUTAC assays are data rich and generate far greater signal-to-noise compared to leading ATAC-seq methods. As a result, CUTAC provides a powerful new approach for low-input, single-cell, and spatial profiling studies. This IP also contains a streamlined "direct-to-PCR" method that mitigates sample clean-up following tagmentation, enabling assay automation and greatly simplifying single cell and spatial workflows.
2. Reverse Transcribe and Tagment (RT&Tag): Covered by patent application PCT/US2023/066213, this advancement enables profiling of chromatin-bound RNAs and associated RNA modifications with remarkable accuracy. This development has the potential to significantly deepen our understanding of RNA biology, including long noncoding RNAs, and its implications in disease.
3. CUT&Tag Compatibility with Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Samples (CUT&Tag-FFPE) and biomarkers of hypertranscription in cancer: Described in patent applications PCT/US2024/031983 and 63/683,342, this strategy makes high-resolution CUT&Tag / CUTAC workflows compatible with FFPE samples, broadening epigenomic mapping applications for clinical research and precision medicine. To date, most FFPE profiling efforts have centered on transcriptome mapping, which are challenged by the poor quality and low recovery of RNA from FFPE tissues. As a DNA-based assay, CUT&Tag-FFPE generate high quality data that would be impossible to access using RNA-based assays, enabling access to archived FFPE samples. This approach has already been used to measure hypertranscription in several human cancers, highlighting its potential use to predict cancer aggressiveness.

By leveraging these cutting-edge technologies, EpiCypher will advance the capabilities of epigenomics research for biomarker discovery and drug development. The enhanced sensitivity and versatility of the licensed technologies enables researchers to conduct more precise and comprehensive studies and will accelerate development of emerging single cell and spatial CUT&Tag applications.

Dr. Martis Cowles, CBO of EpiCypher, expressed his enthusiasm about the new partnership: "Securing this exclusive licensing agreement with Fred Hutch Cancer Center represents another significant milestone for EpiCypher. We are excited to leverage these groundbreaking technologies to push the boundaries of epigenetics research and uncover novel insights that could transform our approach to biomedical research and precision medicine."

EpiCypher plans to integrate these innovative strategies into its product and service offerings and is committed to supporting the research community with state-of-the-art tools for exploring complex biological questions.

For more information about EpiCypher Inc. and their breakthrough research technologies, please visit www.epicypher.com.

About EpiCypher Inc.

EpiCypher was founded in response to the growing demand for high-quality reagents to study chromatin regulation and enable epigenetics-focused drug discovery. The Company is at the forefront of chromatin mapping technologies with the CUTANA^® platform for ultra-sensitive ChIC, CUT&RUN, and CUT&Tag profiling assays. EpiCypher also offers the largest collection of defined designer nucleosomes (dNucs) on the market along with complementary high-throughput assays and services. EpiCypher is dedicated to bringing these transformative technologies to market and offers superior products and assay services to researchers worldwide.

EpiCypher^® and CUTANA^® are registered trademarks of EpiCypher, Inc.

Media Contact: Ellen Weinzapfel PhD, [email protected] 
Partnership Contact: Martis W. Cowles PhD, [email protected] 

SOURCE EpiCypher, Inc.