Modular Bioscience Acquires Exclusive License to University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Artificial Restriction Enzyme Technology

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Modular Bioscience, an early stage biotechnology company based in Silicon Valley, today announced that it has executed a definitive agreement with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for an exclusive global patent license to a novel artificial restriction enzyme (ARE) platform. The proprietary platform was developed by Dr. Huimin Zhao and his team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the basic and applied biological research and medicine. Modular Bioscience's initial focus will be on synthetic biology, diagnosis of inherited genetic diseases, liquid biopsy, and the detection of infectious disease agents such as COVID-19. "Due to its unprecedented simplicity and programmability as well as accessibility, we expect AREs will become a powerful and indispensable tool in all restriction enzyme or nuclease-enabled biotechnological applications and fundamental biological research," predicts Dr. Zhao. "It is to molecular biology as the CRISPR technology is to cell biology." Dr. James Zhang, President and CEO of Modular Bioscience, said, "We are very excited about using this unique technology platform in various applications in research and medicine. We believe leveraging this proprietary platform will reduce the cost and timelines required for the various applications by a factor of at least ten. In addition, these valuable new assets can be licensed to other parties with an R&D interest in artificial restriction enzymes."

Mariana Lencina, technology manager with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Office of Technology Management, added, "We are partnering with Modular Bioscience to advance this promising platform that has the potential to create powerful new tools for molecular biology research."

About Modular Bioscience

Modular Bioscience is an early stage venture capital backed biotechnology company based in the Silicon Valley of the San Francisco Bay Area. Modular Bioscience is using its unique artificial restriction enzyme based platform to facilitate rapid and low cost development of diagnostics and synthetic biology tools and products.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information, which reflects Modular Bioscience's current expectations regarding future events. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Modular Bioscience's control. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and, except as expressly required by applicable law, Modular Bioscience assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 

SOURCE Modular Bioscience