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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