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18/04/2007

Gene Bridges and BASF sign collaboration agreement

Heidelberg, April 18, 2007 - Gene Bridges GmbH, the recombineering company, today announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with BASF AG to use Gene Bridges’ Red/ET recombination technology alongside BASFs expertise in biotechnology, process development and product application.

Under the terms of the agreement, Gene Bridges will provide bio-molecular engineering for strain optimisation and in return, BASF will be responsible for subsequent screening and product and process development. The new agreement is a significant expansion of previous service projects successfully carried out by Gene Bridges for BASF.

“We are delighted to have reached this agreement with such a major player in the industrial biotechnology sector as BASF,” commented Dr. Harald Kranz, who is jointly responsible for this project at Gene Bridges GmbH.

Dr. Tim Zeppenfeld, who shares responsibility for the project at Gene Bridges GmbH, added: “We feel confident that our know-how combined with BASFs excellent technical possibilities will result in a significant acceleration of strain development.”

About Gene Bridges GmbH

Gene Bridges GmbH is a self-financed biotech company pioneering recombineering, the fast and precise engineering of gene sequences. The Company was founded in 2000 as spin-off from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Gene Bridges commercialises its patented recombineering technology through services, commercial licenses and kits from its facilities in Heidelberg as well as through its distributors worldwide. Further information can be found by visiting www.genebridges.com http://www.genebridges.com/


Further Information:
Gary Stevens CEO, Gene Bridges GmbH t: +49 (0)6221-13708 10 e: Gary.Stevens@genebridges.com Douglas Pretsell Account Director, Munich Bureau Chief Northbank Communications t : +49 (0)89 57 00 18 06 e: d.pretsell@northbankcommunications.com


Notes for editors:

Recombineering with Gene Bridges’ Red®/ET®
Red/ET is a revolutionary method for DNA engineering. Recombineering with Red/ET allows unlimited cloning, subcloning, and modification of DNA at any chosen position. It permits precise engineering of DNA molecules of any size, including very large ones such as BACs or the E.coli chromosome. Recombineering DNA using Red/ET has a number of advantages over conventional methods:

· Independent of restriction sites
· No size limits
· No unwanted mutations
· Rapid
Red/ET Recombineering is one simple and powerful tool to modify plasmids, BACs, and even E.coli chromosomes.