Invitrogen Licenses Harvard Chemistry

Invitrogen has taken an exclusive license to cell assays based on "click chemistry" from Harvard University. The chemistry uses a catalyst to connect chemical groups not normally found in biology for the purposes of labeling and detection. The technology licensed from Harvard Medical School researchers Adrian Salic and Timothy Mitchison uses EdU, a modified nucleic acid subunit that is taken up by actively dividing cells. A fluorescent small-molecule tag can be snapped onto the EdU unit to observe proliferating cells at low levels in complex samples. Invitrogen also has licensed click chemistry from Scripps Research Institute and other research organizations.