Dow AgroSciences, Sangamo BioSciences Announce the Achievement of Key Milestones in Plant Agriculture Col...( ZFP Technology Accelerates Precis...)

ZFP Technology Accelerates Precision Gene Control, Trait Stacking in

Commercial Crop Species

INDIANAPOLIS and RICHMOND, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dow AgroSciences LLC and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today the successful completion of research milestones as part of their joint Research and Commercial License Agreement. These milestones represent the successful application of Sangamo's zinc finger DNA-binding protein (ZFP) technology to the generation of specific traits in two major crop species -- maize and canola.

"Our collaboration with Sangamo continues to be spectacularly successful," said Jerome Peribere, president and chief executive officer of Dow AgroSciences. "These milestones build on our earlier achievements and demonstrate the versatility and broad applicability of the ZFP platform to both regulate and modify genes in commercially important plant species. We have now proven that the ZFP technology can accelerate the process of 'trait stacking', which will result in a shorter path to commercialization of crops containing new traits. We believe ZFP technology has the power to truly transform our industry."

Peribere points out that the technology also allows control of the expression of existing genes. Many genes have already been identified in crop species that control the development of major traits relevant to agriculture such as seed quality, yield, and resistance to environmental stresses. Yet until now there has not been a technology that allows precise control of the activity of these genes. ZFP technology provides such an approach and its unique advantage, in addition to its efficiency, is its demonstrated flexibility. The technology can
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