CRISPR pays to part­ner with Vi­a­Cyte on an off-the-shelf gene-edit­ing ap­proach to cur­ing di­a­betes

Vi­a­Cyte has been de­vel­op­ing a line of pan­cre­at­ic cells out of stem cells, look­ing for a re­gen­er­a­tive med­i­cine ap­proach to treat­ing Type 1 di­a­betes. 

But there’s a big draw­back. These cells are seen by the im­mune sys­tem as for­eign, so in or­der for it to work, di­a­bet­ics’ im­mune sys­tem has to be sup­pressed — with ob­vi­ous po­ten­tial for harm. 

Now, CRISPR Ther­a­peu­tics $CR­SP, one of the lead­ers in CRISPR/Cas9 gene edit­ing with a big in­ter­est in re­gen­er­a­tive med­i­cine, is step­ping in to use their im­mune-eva­sive tech to cre­ate a new line of cells that can do the job with­out kick­ing in the re­jec­tion re­sponse.

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