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23 March 2007 - 00:00
Danisco’s Cultures division unveils in Science a breakthrough discovery of natural cellular protection against virusesToday in Science, researchers from Danisco laboratories open new perspectives in the battle against viral infections with a publication of the results of their ground-breaking research on microbial acquired immunity. Danisco’s scientists have established for the first time the relationship between CRISPR and resistance against bacteriophages (bacterial viruses). CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) form peculiar regions in the genome of numerous bacterial species. “These results represent a long searched and entirely natural solution to bacteriophage for all culture-using industries where phage attacks are causing downgraded product batches and significantly reduced yield”, says Patrick Boyaval, Innovation Director in Dangé-Saint-Romain laboratories in France. The research was carried out by an international team of Danisco scientists from R&D sites in France and the USA, in collaboration with Sylvain Moineau’s research group from Université Laval, in Canada. It springs from the use of specific R&D platforms developed internally to analyse key strains widely used in the industry and naturally enhance their resistance against phages while retaining their functionalities. Danisco will exploit these breakthrough findings on CRISPR and the related patent applications to develop food cultures with enhanced resistance to infections by bacteriophages. Such unique and improved commercial cultures should further strengthen Danisco’s position as a world leader in Biotechnology. For more information about Danisco, please contact:Nathalie Brosse +33 6 77 79 76 33For more information on the scientific article, please contact:Philippe Horvath at philippe.horvath@danisco.comThe article entitled “CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in Prokaryotes” is available on-line in Science via this link. Rodolphe Barrangou,1 Christophe Fremaux,2 Hélène Deveau,3 Melissa Richards,1 Patrick Boyaval,2 Sylvain Moineau,3 Dennis A. Romero,1 Philippe Horvath2* 1 Danisco USA Inc., 3329 Agriculture Drive,
Madison, WI 53716, USA
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