Next-gen gene editing upstart is grabbing the brass ring with a $150M crossover play to back its bid on a cure for sickle cell disease
Back in the spring of 2014, Versant put together a tidy $25 million launch round for a small upstart with big dreams called CRISPR Therapeutics. They had an impressive brain trust, headed by CRISPR/Cas9 innovator — and now Nobel winner — Emmanuelle Charpentier. And that exclusive band of gene editing pioneers included Matt Porteus out of Stanford.
CRISPR Therapeutics, of course, went on to become a leader in the gene editing field, now partnered with Vertex on a cutting-edge program for sickle cell disease. The biotech has a market cap brushing up against $10 billion — serious money in an era that’s turned its attention to biotech and the future of medicine.
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