back
Ascenion to Market Mouse Models for Professor Klaus Rajewsky
August 2nd, 2006, Munich – Professor Klaus Rajewsky, a world-famous immunologist and geneticist, has chosen Ascenion GmbH as marketing partner for a total of 53 transgenic mice for which he holds the property rights. The mouse strains have been developed mainly as models of immune system disease. They enable research into disease processes as well as the targeted development of new therapies, for example for tumours of the immune system or Crohn’s disease.
Commercial users, in particular biotech and pharma companies, can license these animal models through Ascenion. The licence fees are paid to a non-profitmaking foundation, the Mouse Genetics Cologne Foundation (MGC Foundation), which was established especially for this purpose. The MGC Foundation then makes these tax-free funds available to research programmes, mainly at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne and at the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston. Professor Rajewsky developed the transgenic mice at the Institute for Genetics in Cologne, where he worked for nearly 40 years, before moving to the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research at the Harvard Medical School in 2002.
Non-commercial users, that is, researchers in universities and public research institutes, may continue to use the animal models without a licence and can order them directly from the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, USA (www.jax.org), where all the mice are bred.
“My aim is to make these animal models as widely available as possible for research and drug development”, said Professor Rajewsky. “Our cooperation with Ascenion allows us to realise their full commercial potential and support basic genetic and immunological research with the proceeds.”
Ascenion has already sealed five licence agreements with international biotech and pharma companies. “Professor Rajewsky’s transgenic mice are highly specific and well-characterised animal models that are indispensable for the development of new therapies,” commented Dr Christian Stein, CEO of Ascenion GmbH. “The interest from industry is correspondingly high. I am confident that further licence agreements will follow in the near future, to the benefit of both industry and researchers at the University of Cologne and the CBR Institute.”
Additional information and an overview of the animal models available for licensing can be found on the Ascenion website (www.ascenion.de).
Contact
Dr Peter Ruile, COO
T: +49 (0)89 318814-14, E: ruile(at)ascenion.de
Ascenion GmbH, Herzogstr. 64, 80803 München
Background Information
Ascenion GmbH
Ascenion is a patent management agency focused on the life sciences. Ascenion supports and advises public research institutions with regard to the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property (patents, know-how, materials), and initiates and mediates license agreements between research institutions and industry. Among Ascenion′s particular strengths are start-up coaching and active investment management. Ascenion is a 100% subsidiary of the Life-Science Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Research and the exclusive commercialization partner for the 13 research institutes in the Helmholtz and Leibniz Associations. Ascenion′s headquarters are in Munich, with further offices in Berlin, Braunschweig, Neuherberg, and, from August 2006, in Hamburg. Further information at www.ascenion.de.
