Paris, France and Limburgerhof, Germany
May 19, 2003

Unique Meganuclease to delete marker genes from crops

Cellectis SA, a biotechnology company specialized in genome engineering, announced today that the company has entered into an agreement with BASF Plant Science GmbH. The agreement covers the evaluation and use of Cellectis' proprietary Meganuclease I-SceI for the deletion/excision of nucleotides sequences, such as marker genes, in plants for agricultural and nutrition applications. Financial terms and conditions of the agreement were not disclosed.

Through this agreement, BASF Plant Science researchers can use Cellectis' Meganuclease I-SceI in order to excise marker genes in model plants and improved crop plants. Meganucleases, such as the natural Meganuclease I-SceI, are very rare restriction endonucleases used to induce unique site-directed double-strand breaks in the genome of organisms. Cellectis is focused on the research and development of novel custom made Meganucleases for rational genome intervention and provides ultimate tools for in vivo site-directed recombination.

"We are happy of this new deal with a major player in the AgBiotech field" says Mrs. Isabelle Bressac, VP Business Development of Cellectis. "It demonstrates once again the will of the plant field to move toward rational methods of genome engineering and the potential industrial value of our technology", she added.

"We consider this cooperation an attractive opportunity to combine the expertise of Cellectis in the field of Meganuclease technology with BASF Plant Science knowledge in plant biotechnology" says Dr. Jürgen Logemann, VP Technology Managament of BASF Plant Science. "Meganucleases have promising applications in new marker excision technologies developed by BASF Plant Science", he added.

All BASF activities involving plant biotechnology are incorporated in BASF Plant Science. BASF Plant Science coordinates an international research and technology platform with seven sites in four countries in Europe and North America and employs about 400 staff.

In addition, BASF Plant Science has established numerous complementary cooperations with research institutes, universities and biotechnology companies in Europe and North America. The research activities of BASF Plant Science are concentrated in the areas of more efficient and sustainable agriculture, healthier nutrition and use of plants as "green factories". These include for example plants with improved tolerance to drought. Another research focus is to develop plants with a higher level of vitamins or with omega-3-fatty acids that can prevent cardiovascular diseases. Through 2010 BASF will invest €700 million in the expansion of its plant biotechnology operations.
To find out more about BASF Plant Science, please see our internet web site at: http://www.basf.com/biotechnology.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. In 2002, BASF had sales of about €32 billion and over 89,000 employees worldwide.

Cellectis SA (www.cellectis.com) was founded in 1999, as a spin-off from the Institut Pasteur. It is the first company to apply the Meganuclease Recombination System approach to in vivo genome engineering. The company is developing Meganucleases that can target a unique DNA break in vivo, as a fundamentally enabling technology for commercial applications in human therapeutics, pharmaceutical discovery, agriculture and industrial biotechnology. Cellectis' team today consists of 35 people including 14 PhDs and the total invested capital since the company's inception is approximately €20 million.