Caribou Biosciences, a developer of technology-based solutions for
cellular engineering, today announced that it entered into a
collaboration agreement with Novartis under which the two companies will
utilize Caribou's proprietary CRISPR-Cas9 platform to research new
CRISPR-based drug target screening and validation technologies.
Under the terms of the agreement, Caribou will receive funding for a
one-year collaborative research program and Caribou will provide
Novartis an option to non-exclusively license research use rights of the
Caribou CRISPR-Cas9 platform. Caribou also announced that it has
completed a separate Series A investment agreement with Novartis, the
terms of which were not disclosed.
"We are thrilled to begin this collaboration with a recognized industry
leader like Novartis and to gain access to its vast expertise in drug
discovery," said Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and
co-founder of Caribou Biosciences. "This is an exciting time in the
evolution of Caribou and we consider both the collaboration and equity
agreements with Novartis to be important milestones and key accelerators
for our pursuit of multiple and valuable market opportunities for our
CRISPR-Cas9 platform."
Caribou is advancing its CRISPR-Cas9 platform in drug target screening
and validation to help overcome the limitations of current RNAi-based
approaches. Traditional RNAi-screening technologies yield only a
partial, transient suppression of target gene expression, or a
"knockdown". This process may result in either little or inconsistent
changes in a cell or animal model as the siRNA is eliminated from cells
over time. By inducing a stable, complete knockout of specific genes,
CRISPR-Cas9 may offer a superior means of identifying genes representing
attractive therapeutic targets. In addition, RNAi screens are
also known to exhibit a high background, which can lead to both false
negatives and the need for highly redundant libraries to ensure
statistical significance. As Caribou's CRISPR platform can utilize guide
RNAs specific for unique sequences and can target a gene at numerous
sites, it offers the potential to reduce the high background by tuning
the system for greater specificity.
Caribou's technologies are based on research into the biology of CRISPR
systems carried out by the Doudna Lab at the University of California,
Berkeley, and their collaborators. At the core of Caribou's extensive
CRISPR technologies IP portfolio is an exclusive license to the
foundational CRISPR-Cas9 work from the University of California and the
University of Vienna. This work was recently recognized by the award of
a Breakthrough Prize to Caribou co-founder Jennifer Doudna,
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor, U.C.
Berkeley and her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, Helmholtz Center
for Infection Research and Umeå University.
Caribou's strategic focus is on building and deploying its CRISPR-Cas9
technology platform through relationships with industry leaders in
multiple market sectors. By partnering with companies in diverse
application areas, Caribou is able to integrate discoveries from
therapeutic research, agricultural biotechnology and industrial
biotechnology to develop the platform further.
About Caribou Biosciences
Caribou Biosciences is a developer of technology-based solutions for
cellular engineering and analysis based on CRISPR-Cas9 biology.
Caribou's tools and technologies provide transformative capabilities to
basic and applied biological research, therapeutic development,
agricultural biotechnology, and industrial biotechnology.
Copyright Business Wire 2015