In Depth 12 Feb 2024
RNA editing set to take off: could DNA’s short-lived cousin overcome the limitations of CRISPR gene editing?
Find out all about about RNA editing, as two candidates have just managed to reach the clinic for the first time.
Search Results for: dna
Podcast 19 Jan 2024
Epigenetic editing – the power of CRISPR without cutting DNA
Epic Bio is an epigenetic editing company, leveraging the power of CRISPR without cutting DNA. The company’s proprietary Gene Expression Modulation System (GEMS) includes the smallest Cas protein known to work in human cells. This enables in vivo or ex vivo delivery via a single viral vector. Epic’s lead program, EPI-321, is in IND-enabling studies […]
In Depth 29 Sep 2023
Illumina: DNA giant in troubled waters
A botched acquisition deal and unrest among company investors amid plummeting stocks have plagued Illumina, which was once part of the biotech big leagues that dominated the field of gene sequencing. Now, in fear of losing its ground to other players in the space, it has received a European Commission order to divest Grail, and […]
In Depth 10 Jul 2023
“Ready-to-use” enzymatically produced cell-free synthetic DNA in mRNA manufacturing
By Ashish Dhir, PhD and Amy Walker, PhD, 4basebio The pace, efficacy and scalability with which the success of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 was demonstrated opened endless possibilities for mRNA medicine in broad areas of infectious diseases, cancers, protein-encoding replacement therapies. The advantages of RNA medicine are obvious, with the ease and speed of design […]
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News and Trends 4 Jul 2023
Camena Bioscience raises $10M for DNA synthesis platform
Camena Bioscience, a synthetic biology company providing genes to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, has closed a $10m Series A financing round, led by Mercia. The new funding will be used to scale operations and continue development of its DNA synthesis platform, gSynth. Camena Bioscience is the first company to offer the enzyme-based DNA synthesis […]
News and Trends 23 May 2023
HuidaGene Therapeutics creates world’s first ‘G to Y’ DNA base-editor
HuidaGene Therapeutics, a clinical-stage genome-editing company, says the National Science Review has published data from its study of the world’s first DNA base editor converting guanine to cytosine/thymine (pyrimidine), or G-to-Y. The company has filed an international patent application for the glycosylase-based guanine base editor (gGBE) and owns the exclusive global rights to the underlying […]
News and Trends 5 May 2023
Exothera partners with Quantoom and launches DNA business unit
Exothera has partnered with Quantoom Biosciences to gain access to Quantoom’s Nfinity technology, a continuous production platform for RNA. The partnership will enable Exothera to be the first CDMO in the world to offer this off-the-shelf process for the continuous production of RNA as a service. Continuous manufacturing of RNA can provide significant advantages in […]
News and Trends 17 Mar 2023
How cancer cells repair DNA damage from radiotherapy
A team of scientists led by Kei-ichi Takata from the Center for Genomic Integrity (CGI) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea, has discovered a new type of DNA repair mechanism that cancer cells use to recover from next-generation cancer radiation therapy. Ionizing radiation (IR) therapy is frequently used in the treatment […]
News and Trends 2 Feb 2023
AstraZeneca creates FRAGLER for DNA synthesis
“Plasmids are critical for so many processes in early drug discovery,” says David Öling, associate principal scientist at AstraZeneca. “From protein production, cell line engineering, CAR-T cell therapy, viral vector generation, therapeutic genome editing, mRNA/vaccine production and more. The time it takes and the cost of producing plasmids for DNA constructs is a critical limiting […]
News and Trends 21 Dec 2022
Artificial DNA can kill cancer
Researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan have used artificial DNA to target and kill cancer cells in a new way. The method was effective in lab tests against human cervical cancer- and breast cancer-derived cells, and against malignant melanoma cells from mice. The team created a pair of chemically synthesized, hairpin-shaped, cancer-killing DNA. […]
Startup Scout 13 Dec 2022
Biomemory is making DNA hard drives cheap and sustainable
The world is running out of ways to store the mountains of data we produce. Biomemory is creating DNA-based hard drives that could store this information cheaply, sustainably and for centuries. Society has advanced very far in technologies to store critical data, moving from punched cards and floppy disks in the 20th century to hard […]
News and Trends 8 Dec 2022
DNA repair mechanism study could boost cancer treatment
A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in DNA repair may pave the way for developing inhibitors to improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a critical DNA repair pathway that plays a key role in maintaining transcription and genome integrity by removing bulky DNA lesions. The key steps in the […]