Wageningen, Netherlands and London, United Kingdom
January 11, 2016

KeyGene and LGC announced today that they have entered into a service license agreement to expand LGC’s technology portfolio by adding KeyGene’s Sequence-Based Genotyping (SBG) technology. SBG is recognized in the industry for its broad application for genetic analyses in plants, animals, micro-organisms and model species to characterize genomic diversity and for improvement of traits. Under the agreement, LGC obtains a non-exclusive license for the commercial offering and use of KeyGene's patented SBG technology across all species, including field and vegetable crops, for the global market. The SBG patents protect highly cost-effective methods for identification and scoring of genetic markers, including SBG, Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS), double digest GBS (ddGBS) and related methods. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"SBG is fully aligned with the needs of translational agriculture and plant breeding programs. We are very pleased with licensing our SBG patent portfolio to LGC, a market-leading genotyping service company", said Michiel van Eijk, CSO of KeyGene. "LGC's excellent reputation and global outreach fits perfectly with our vision for the application and use of the SBG technology and its potential in translational genomics."

“We are excited to be entering into this partnership with a renowned market leader and technology innovator, and see the addition of the SBG methodologies to our service offering as another significant step in serving the complete genotyping and marker discovery needs of our customers”, said Marcus Wills, Strategic Marketing Director of LGC Genomics.

About LGC
LGC is an international life sciences measurement and testing company with leading positions in growing markets. LGC provides a range of measurement products and services which underpin the safety, health and security of the public, including reference materials and proficiency testing, genomics reagents and instrumentation, and expert sample analysis and interpretation. LGC serves customers across a number of end markets including Pharmaceuticals, Agricultural Biotechnology, Food, Environment, Government and Academia. LGC’s headquarters are in London and the company employs over 2,000 people, operating out of 22 countries worldwide. Its operations are extensively accredited to international quality standards such as ISO/IEC 17025, GMP, GLP, ISO Guide 34 and ISO/IEC 17043.
With a history dating back to 1842, LGC has been home to the UK Government Chemist for more than 100 years and is the designated UK National Measurement Institute for chemical and bio measurement.

About KeyGene
The crop innovation company 
KeyGene is a privately owned Ag Biotech company with its primary focus on crop innovation. KeyGene’s approach is to enable molecular genetics for the future of global agriculture. KeyGene supports its strategic partners with cutting edge breeding technologies, bioinformatics and plant-based trait platforms, with more than 135 employees worldwide. KeyGene has sites in Wageningen, the Netherlands and in Rockville, USA.

Website: http://www.keygene.com

Published: January 11, 2016