Seattle-based Cyrus Biotechnology has partnered with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to find safer CRISPR drugs using technology developed at the University of Washington.
Cyrus, which spun out of UW’s Institute of Protein Design in 2015, began working with the group led by principal investigator Feng Zhang this summer.
Many biotech and pharmaceutical companies are working on new drugs using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, but recent evidence shows that the immune system could launch an attack on the CRISPR drugs resulting in side effects and allergies, Cyrus CEO Lucas Nivon told the Business Journal. The partnership aims to sidestep this risk.
“In certain cases, it’s going to be the difference between a certain drug existing versus it not existing because it’s too unsafe to use,” Nivon said. “CRISPR is widely used internationally and all over the United States. Labs all over the world could use what comes out of this (collaboration).”
The goal is to generate multiple drugs from the partnership’s findings, Nivon said.
