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MINNEAPOLIS, March 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bio-Techne has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Multiclonal Therapeutics (MCT) to commercialize reagents and media systems in the research reagent field intended for cloning, propagating, and differentiating adult "ground-state" stem cells from healthy and diseased epithelial tissues.  Working together, Bio-Techne and MCT will transition this breakthrough technology into reagents and model systems that will be made available under this license to the research community, enabling scientists to create ex vivo models of epithelial organs in their own laboratories using tissue-specific adult stem cells. These reagents are complementary to and will utilize Bio-Techne's existing technologies for recombinant protein, small molecule, and media generation. 

Chuck Kummeth, President and CEO of Bio-Techne, commented, "It is an incredible opportunity working with Multiclonal Therapeutics to bring their novel technology into the hands of researchers. We believe these adult 'ground-state' stem cell populations will provide an important tool for the advancement of disease modeling, drug screening, biomarker discovery and novel therapeutic discovery."

This technology was discovered by the Multiclonal Therapeutics co-founders and research team of Wa Xian, PhD and Frank McKeon, PhD. Dr. McKeon commented on the agreement, "We are thrilled to partner with Bio-Techne to develop the potential of this technology for research laboratories and look forward with great anticipation to the new insights into disease mechanisms and regenerative medicine we anticipate this system will enable."

"Ground-state" stem cells reside in most tissues, providing a source of cells for local tissue regeneration or, in the case of cancer and other diseases, the cell regenerating the diseased tissue. This new cell culture and cloning technology will rapidly isolate and propagate adult "ground state" stem cells from small biopsy samples of epithelial tissues – both normal and diseased – and maintain the features and functionality of the stem cells as they existed in the underlying tissue. The MCT technology preserves the ground state of the isolated stem cells by maintaining the regional specificity of cells isolated from closely associated but distinct regions of an organ, as well as the stable maintenance of disease epigenetics in stem cells isolated from inflammatory and cancer tissues.

The reagents and model systems Bio-Techne will be able to offer through this license from MCT provide a transformative platform to isolate, expand, and differentiate adult stem cells from a broad range of human and rodent epithelial tissues. Generating healthy and diseased tissues from adult stem cells offers a model to facilitate regenerative medicine research, drug screening and development, toxicology screening, biomarker discovery, and disease modeling.

ABOUT BIO-TECHNE CORPORATION:
Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) is a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality purified proteins––notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays, as well as biologically active small molecule compounds --- which are sold to biomedical researchers and clinical research laboratories; these operations constitute the core Biotech Division, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The Protein Platform Division manufactures innovative protein analysis tools under the ProteinSimple brand name that greatly automate western blotting and immunoassay practices. The Diagnostics Division manufactures FDA-regulated controls, calibrators, blood gas and clinical chemistry controls for OEM customer and clinical customers. Bio-Techne products assist scientific investigations into biological processes and the nature and progress of specific diseases. They aid in drug discovery efforts and provide the means for accurate clinical tests and diagnoses. With thousands of products in its portfolio, Bio-Techne generated approximately $499 million in net sales in fiscal 2016 and has approximately 1,700 employees worldwide. For more information on Bio-Techne and its brands, please visit www.bio-techne.com.

ABOUT MULTICLONAL THERAPEUTICS

Multiclonal Therapeutics was formed by the research team of Frank McKeon, PhD, and Wa Xian, PhD. The company's technologies focus on isolating, culturing and manipulating adult stem cells with the goal of generating useful tools to model major diseases as well as diagnostics. Multiclonal Therapeutics retained the rights under its intellectual property rights, for itself and its licensees, to use the proprietary culture systems and reagents for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, such as relating to drug discovery and cell therapy manufacturing and has created a streamlined licensing program to work along aside Bio-Techne's research reagent offerings. For information relating to diagnostic and therapeutic licenses, contact licensing@multiclonaltherapeutics.com.

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SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation