“But then, after a certain amount of product, you’ll start seeing off-target cleavage somewhere else.” “With CRISPR, you’ll start seeing cutting where you want and as you increase, you’ll see more efficacy as the frequency goes up,” explains Sourdive. “It’s a great research tool, but we don’t think it’s mature enough to go into the clinic,” Sourdive says. Despite this hard lesson in the revolutionary potential of CRISPR, Cellectis recognizes its limitations. In fact, this accessibility threw Cellectis for a loop when it was trying to sell TALEN kits to researchers. The campaign was so unsuccessful that the company fired all of its staff and restructured its efforts to focus solely on CAR-T. What CRISPR does well is that it’s implementable by any lab in the world.” “It’s very easy to use for academics and for labs. “Today, we think CRISPR is very interesting because it’s a very easy-to-use technology,” says Sourdive. TALEN is recognized for its high degrees of precision and control, while CRISPR rose to fame for its comparative simplicity and versatility in cleaving DNA. It’s not just Cellectis - Adaptimmune, which works on TCR therapies, and bluebird bio, which focuses on gene therapy and immuno-oncology, also chose TALEN. “It is extremely accurate and versatile.” “The reason we chose TALEN is very simple: today, it’s the best in class,” says Sourdive.
The team has seen it all - endonucleases, meganucleases, TALEN, BRH, mega-TALS, CRISPR/Cas9… but the company stands by TALEN. We’ve been in gene editing since its inception - some of us have been in gene editing for 30 years, so we know what gene editing is about.” His answer? “We’re pretty agnostic in terms of technologies, to be honest. We asked VP David Sourdive of Cellectis, one of the European leaders in CAR-T development. Up until now, TALEN has been the standard method, but will CRISPR take over? The procedure hinges on engineering T-cells to express a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) for tumor-specific antigens on their membranes, which is effected with gene editing. “Investment without data is called gambling!” a venture capital partner told us.īeyond its potential to become a standalone therapy, gene editing is also an integral part of other applications, namely CAR-T therapies in immuno-oncology. There is no data yet available upon which to base a valuation: though a number of companies like Editas and CRISPR Therapeutics are working to leverage CRISPR, none have yet reached clinical trials. As Tim Haines, a Managing Partner at Abingworth, told us, “CRISPR is a revolution, and Charpentier should be the youngest Nobel Prize winner ever.”ĭespite the excitement about the “unprecedented technology,” as Editas CEO Katrine Bosley describes it to the World Economic Forum, there is some doubt about CRISPR’s use to biotech at this stage.ĬRISPR has already proved its worth as a research tool, but its use as a therapeutic, despite acclaimed, is still uncertain.
Since the gene editing technology first entered the spotlight in 2012 with the promise of revolutionizing gene editing, it has made headlines as the subject of a furious patent war and is perennially the expected winner of the Nobel Prize. So where is it in biotech?ĬRISPR needs no introduction. He has authored several publications in leading scientific and business journals.Despite all the hype, CRISPR is still not in the clinic as a standalone therapy or part of another. While at the University of Washington, Sam conducted research on the delivery of biological drugs and in the field of molecular diagnostics. in Bioengineering and Nanotechnology from the University of Washington and a B. Sam also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Casebia Therapeutics, a joint subsidiary formed by CRISPR and Bayer. While at McKinsey, he co-led the biotechnology practice and focused on topics ranging from strategy to operations and led initiatives in areas such as personalized medicine and immunotherapy. Prior to CRISPR, Sam was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he had a leading role in the Pharmaceutical and Medical products practice. He joined CRISPR in 2015 in the early stages of the company as Chief Business Officer (CBO), and then served as President and CBO before being named its CEO in 2017.
currently serves as CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics AG. An industry leader with expertise in strategy and operations in biotech and a wide range of pioneering therapeutic technologies, Samarth (Sam) Kulkarni, Ph.D.
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