GenScript, the world’s leading reagents provider, announced today the launch of its Research Lentiviral Vector Packaging Service for cell line development, gene editing, and drug discovery. The service enables scientists to package their genetic material of choice using GenScript’s proprietary platform to ensure consistent production of functional and intact viruses.
Access to high volume, high quality lentiviruses has become increasingly important in identifying therapeutics to fight COVID-19 and mutant strains of the virus as they emerge. Dr. Nevan Krogan, a molecular and systems biologist who leads The Krogan lab at the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at UCSF and the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biosciences (GIDB), is using GenScript’s lentiviruses to identify drugs against COVID-19.
“Having direct access to high quality, functionally intact titers has been crucial to our efforts to evaluate existing drugs that could be repurposed to fight COVID-19 faster,” Krogan said. “Generating lentiviruses on our own would have been time- consuming and would likely have required repetition of multiple experiments due to lower quality of viral vectors, significantly delaying our progress. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with GenScript and its lentivirus service in the future.”
“Dr. Krogan’s work highlights the importance of functional intact titers and speed in therapeutic development, and we’re pleased to be partnering with UCSF on this research,” said Dr. Shi Minlong, vice president of production at GenScript. “The versatility of lentiviruses in transducing multiple cell types makes them useful for basic research and in other fields such as cancer and autoimmune diseases.”
Lentiviral vectors are a type of retrovirus capable of infecting both dividing and non-dividing cells, making them ideally suited to delivering genes for fighting autoimmune diseases and cancer or viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. However, producing large quantities of lentiviruses can be challenging to do in-house, and virus titer quality is often inconsistent. GenScript’s Lentiviral Packaging Service overcomes those challenges with proprietary formulation and workflow, enabling faster development of therapeutics.
Lentiviruses have advantages over other viral vectors such as Adeno-Associated Viruses (AAV) as they are capable of carrying large transgenes and infecting a broad range of tissue types. They also have reduced immunogenicity and therefore produce few side-effects. Most lentiviral vectors used today are based on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
About GenScript Biotech Corporation
GenScript Biotech Corporation (Stock Code: 1548.HK) is a global biotechnology group. Based on its leading gene synthesis technology, GenScript has developed four major platforms, including the global cell therapy platform, the biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) platform, the contract research organization (CRO) platform, and the industrial synthesis product platform.
GenScript was founded in New Jersey, US, in 2002 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2015. GenScript’s business operation spans over 100 countries and regions worldwide, with legal entities located in the U.S., Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, and Ireland. GenScript has provided premium, convenient, and reliable products and services for over 100,000 customers.
GenScript has several intellectual property rights and technical secrets, including more than 100 patents and over 270 patent applications. As of December 31, 2019, GenScript’s products and services have been cited by 42,200 peer-reviewed journal articles worldwide.
