Background
The patent portfolio covering group II intron and related reverse transcriptase developed by Dr. Alan Lambowitz at UT Austin, including the highly efficient Thermostable Group II Intron Reverse Transcriptase (TGIRT) enzyme, is available for licensing and commercialization. As many high-profile publications have demonstrated, TGIRT has higher thermostability, processivity, and fidelity than traditional retroviral reverse transcriptases, allowing full-length, end-to-end cDNA synthesis from highly structured or modified RNAs. Group II intron and related reverse transcriptases also have a novel and highly advantageous end-to-end template-switching activity that enables attachment of RNA-seq or PCR adapters during reverse transcription, eliminating the need for a separate RNA 3'-adapter ligation step.
These enzymes have been used for a broad range of applications including transcriptome profiling, RNA-seq library construction for diverse applications, tRNA-sequencing, RNA-protein interaction characterization, RNA base modification identification, RNA structure mapping, characterizing nascent transcripts, and more. TGIRT is scalable at high purity and is ready to go to market as is. Our patents broadly cover group II intron reverse transcriptase and related enzymes and their applications, modifications that enhance enzyme properties, including yield and stability, and methods for enzyme engineering as well as template switching, with issued template switching structure patents and patent applications extending to non-retroviral/non-LTR-retroelement reverse transcriptases. Dr. Lambowitz and his collaborators are continuing development of improved versions of these enzymes and have the capability to engineer variants with enhanced properties according to the needs of both customers and our industry partners.
Features and benefits
Advantages of TGIRT and and related RT enzymes:
- Template switching capability- allows one-step library prep and reduces bias in sample preparation.
- Enables simultaneous profiling of mRNAs and lncRNAs in the same RNA-seq as structured small ncRNAs, including tRNAs
- Higher thermostability, processivity, and strand-displacement activity than traditional retroviral RTs
- Offers ability to analyze RNA templates containing GC-rich repeat expansions
- Enables synthesis of full-length, end-to-end cDNAs from tRNAs and other small structured/modified ncRNAs, which are refractory to retroviral RTs
