Feng Zhang (Susan Walsh/AP Images)

Feng Zhang’s qui­et spin­out snares $215M in a race for the next big CRISPR com­pa­ny

Af­ter Sig­ilon Ther­a­peu­tics’ $126 mil­lion IPO last De­cem­ber, COO De­vyn Smith start­ed get­ting calls. Job of­fers, most­ly, for this biotech or that, none that quite hit.

Then a re­cruiter reached out about an open­ing at a spin­out from Feng Zhang’s MIT CRISPR lab that, de­spite a flashy launch, had gone large­ly qui­et for three years. The com­pa­ny, Ar­bor Biotech­nolo­gies, was ready to en­ter a new phase and need­ed a new leader with ex­pe­ri­ence bring­ing drugs in­to hu­man tri­als. Smith, a for­mer Pfiz­er ex­ec­u­tive re­mem­ber­ing the press re­leas­es around Ar­bor’s launch, said yes.

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