T-LOCK™ gene repression technology
Efficient gene silencing
Our gene repression technology works by directly interacting with the gene that needs to be repressed or silenced. By directly binding to the gene involved, we can prevent the gene from being Transcribed, hence the name T-LOCK™.
Compared to other gene repression technologies, our T-LOCK™ technology has a number of important benefits. Many other technologies (e.g. RNAi, siRNA) operate at the RNA level. Since a single gene can generate many RNA copies during transcription, all these RNA molecules need to be bound by RNAi, siRNA or other inhibitory molecules. Our T-LOCK™ technology works directly at the DNA level. The number of inhibitory molecules delivered to the cell can therefor be far less using T-LOCK™ compared to other methods.
A second important benefit is that T-LOCK™ makes use of zinc fingers to recognize its target DNA sequence with a higher resolution. Zinc fingers often bind synergistically and have a much better potential to distinguish DNA sequences, even if they only differ by a single nucleotide. This can be important for example when a disease causing mutant gene needs to be silenced, while the normal gene is still needed for normal cell function.
Our T-LOCK™ constructs can also be produced using a chassis originated from human cells. This can be important when repeat dosing is required. Using only human sequences prevents immune responses, which could be triggered when foreign proteins (e.g. CAS/CRISPR based repression systems) are used.