Horizon forms 3 new Centers of Excellence for gene editing in Asia

Horizon Discovery (Horizon), a leading provider of research tools to support the development of personalized medicines, today announced it has established three new Centers of Excellence (CoE's) for gene editing in Asia. The new Centers are at Aichi Cancer Center, Japan, Seoul National University, South Korea, and the National Cancer Centre (NCC), Singapore. Horizon will support the three research centers in their application of its proprietary gene engineering technology, GENESIS™, to generate human isogenic cell lines harboring specific genes/mutations relating to cancer.

"We are delighted these three new institutes have joined our Centers of Excellence program," said Dr Rob Howes, Principal Scientist, Horizon. "We are excited to continue expanding our rAAV genome editing network into Asia, and hope to add to this further through 2013."

The Aichi Cancer Center is Horizon's second CoE in Japan, and will focus on elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of viral proliferation and oncogenesis of Epstein Barr Virus, as part of the world-wide effort to combat virally-initiated cancers. The principal investigator for this program will be Dr. Takayuki Murata.

Seoul National University, Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, will work with Horizon to create isogenic cell lines to study the regulatory mechanisms of BubR1 spindle assembly checkpoint, in order to increase understanding of the basis of genetic instability of cancer. Associate Professor Hyunsook Lee will be leading the program for Seoul National University.

Dr Daniel SW Tan, PI at the NCC Singapore, Department of Medical Oncology, will use Horizon's technology to study the effects on cell lines of cancer-causing EGFR mutations, which are implicated in a wide range of cancer types.

These centers become part of the larger Horizon Centers of Excellence network, which includes high profile Institutions such as Cambridge University, UCL, Yale University, Washington University in St Louis, the NCI in Bethesda, and the National Cancer Centre, Japan.