Ex­clu­sive: Strand lays off 18% of staff as its first mR­NA ther­a­pies head in­to the clin­ic

Less than a week af­ter an­nounc­ing that reg­u­la­tors have green­lit the first tests of its tu­mor-bust­ing mR­NA ther­a­py, Strand Ther­a­peu­tics has laid off rough­ly 18% of its em­ploy­ees, End­points News has learned.

Strand was found­ed in 2017 based on re­search of MIT syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gists who fig­ured out how to pro­gram on and off switch­es in­to mR­NA. Those ge­net­ic cir­cuits, as they’re called, of­fered a way to po­ten­tial­ly im­prove the safe­ty and ef­fec­tive­ness of drugs based on the ge­net­ic mol­e­cules.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER