Biotech firm ToolGen opens research center

ToolGen CEO Lee Byong-hwa, center, attends the opening ceremony of the company's research and development center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Friday. Courtesy of ToolGen

ToolGen, a Korean biotech company, opened a research and development (R&D) center to step up its development of gene editing technology, company officials said Friday.

The center, located in the city of Cheongju, is equipped with cutting-edge facilities to study seed development, including a walk-in chamber and a speed breeding chamber.

ToolGen is Korea's only company that owns a patent for the CRISPR-Cas9 foundational technology.

Developed in 2012, CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene editing technology that allows the highly specific and rapid modification of DNA in a genome, following earlier gene editing techniques of zinc finger (ZFN) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases.

"The R&D center will become an outpost for the company's global business, including an expansion of business, technology transfer and sales," ToolGen CEO Lee Byong-hwa said. (Yonhap)