Ubiquitous Chromatin-opening Elements (UCOEs): Applications in biomanufacturing and gene therapy.

Ubiquitous Chromatin-opening Elements (UCOEs) are defined by their ability to consistently confer stable, site of integration-independent transgene expression that is proportional to copy number, including from within regions of heterochromatin such as centromeres. UCOEs structurally consist of methylation-free CpG islands encompassing single or dual divergently-transcribed housekeeping gene promoters. Since their discovery in 1999, UCOEs and their sub-fragments have found applications in areas of biotechnology requiring stable, reproducible, and high levels of gene expression.